Keftaides Me Saltsa (Meatballs in Sauce)

Submitted by Engrossed

"I came across this recipe in the most serendipitous manner...on my way to work going 50mph I saw some trash blowing across the road...it got stuck to my car and I could hear it fluttering all the way to work. When I got out of my car I found a piece of newspaper stuck to my front grill. I took it off and what was it? A torn out page from a week old newspaper that has 4 yummy sounding recipes! Wow. I feel obligated to post them now."

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• Meatballs

• 1 loaf white bread, trimmed of crusts and crumbled
• 2 lbs lean ground beef (can mix) or 2 lbs lean ground lamb (can mix)
• 3 tablespoons onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of fresh mint, chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• salt and pepper, to taste
• flour, to coat
• oil, for frying

• Sauce

• 1 1⁄2 lbs tomatoes, peeled and strained
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1⁄2 cup white wine

directions

1. Wet the bread with cold water and squeeze out the excess; mix well with ground meat. Add the onion, parsley, mint, eggs, salt and pepper.
2. Shape into small 1-inch meatballs and flour lightly.
3. In a pan fry meatballs in oil until browned. Remove from pan with slotted spoon and keep warm.
4. Drain most of the excess oil and fat, reserving about 2 tablespoons (recipe says to use all of the oil but I think that would be too much). Add tomatoes, cinnamon, sugar, salt, pepper and wine and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Return meatballs to the pan and cook 3-5 minutes longer.

Reviews

[bluemoon downunder]

I made these with lamb - 2 serves for tonight's dinner and the rest for the freezer. I made them pretty much to the recipe, except for adding 3 cloves of finely minced garlic to both the meatballs and the sauce, and cooking them at a medium heat in the oven on trays loosely covered in foil rather than panfrying them. Easier and less fat. I removed the foil for the last 5 minutes. They meatballs were moist and favoursome and the sauce was very tasty. I finely minced 4 medium-sized onions and used half in the meatballs - sorry didn't bother to measure them in tablespoons but the quantity seemed right - and half in the sauce. I used 2 cans of tomatoes (easier, and Aldi's Italian tomatoes are just SO excellent!), drained, in the sauce, and used merlot rather than white wine in the sauce as that was the most suitable wine I had on hand. Thanks for sharing this recipe, Engrossed - and the universe!

 

[Nyteglori]

Very good. Kind of an unusual taste but yummy none-the-less. You couldnt taste the mint and the cinnamon was very subtle, more an accent than a flavor.