Spicy Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Juicy spicy meatballs with tomato sauce – laden with mushrooms. Serve on a bed of spaghetti or a bowl of fluffy white rice

Back in the day

School in South Africa, back in the early ’60s, was a very stereotyped affair. For 2 hours every Friday afternoon the girls and boys were separted into 2 different classes. Girls were taught Domestic Science, and the luckier boys got to do Woodwork.

Domestic Science was the low-light of my week. The curriculum covered all aspects of home-making – cleaning, needlework and cookery. We had a text book that we had to work through, covering how to clean a house. To this day, the one thing that sticks in my mind was being taught the correct way to sweep a floor. There it was, written down in black and white, “Step 1 – Stand behind the broom”. Rivetting stuff!

I’m going to gloss over the needlework part of the curriculum. Suffice it to say that the blouse I painstakingly handstiched ended up being used as duster!

The cookery lessons were marginally better. However, looking back, I do feel sorry for the teacher whose job it was to instil the basics of cooking into 20 or so unwilling 14-year old girls. We were given the raw ingredients and had to follow along, as she patiently demonstrated how to make macaroni cheese and scones that turned out like rocks as we enthusiastically overmixed them.

My first attempt at meatballs

One of the things she taught us that does stick in my mind was how to make meatballs. It was a very basic recipe consisting of just minced beef, grated onions, egg and breadcrumbs, which we fried in cooking oil (no health considerations in those days). Surprisingly, mine turned out to be quite edible and I remember going home and making them for supper for the family that night.

I think it was those meatballs that started my love affair with cooking. The fact that I suddenly realised that taking ingredients and turning them into something worth eating, actually provided quite a sense of achievement.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those days and I like to think the flavour of my meatballs has improved somewhat. Here is my recipe for spicy meatballs with tomato sauce. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients for spicy meatballs with tomato sauce

Whenever I read a recipe I like to have a look at the ingredients to see whether I have everything I need. To make it easy for you – I’ve listed the ingredients below. You can get the full list of ingredients and quantities in the printable recipe card further down in the post.

For the meatballs

• 250 g Minced Beef
• 250 g Minced Pork
• 1 large Egg
• 1 large onion – grated
• 2 slices White Bread
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon Chilli Flakes or to your own taste
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon mixed herbs

For the tomato sauce

• 6 large tomatoes – coarsely chopped
• 6 medium onions – coarsely chopped
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 100 ml red wine vinegar
• 100 g brown sugar
• 1 tspn chilli flakes
• 2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to make spicy meatballs with tomato sauce

For the spicy meatballs

I use equal quantities of pork and beef mince.  I find pork mince adds extra flavour to the meatballs and makes them softer and more juicy. You could use all beef – then you will need 500g beef.

• Soak the bread in milk. Leave it to stand until all the milk has been absorbed and the bread is soggy.
• Mix the pork and beef together in a mixing bowl and add 1 egg
• Gently squeeze the milk from the bread and add the bread to the meat.
• Grate in one large onion and add all the seasoning ingredients.  Season with salt and pepper and mix all together thoroughly.

• Line a baking tray with baking parchment paper to stop the meatballs sticking. If you use baking parchment you will not need to use any oil. If you don’t have baking parchment then just coat the baking tray with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• Roll the meat into golf-ball sized meatballs and place on the baking tray.

To stop the meatballs from sticking to your hands whilst forming the meatballs keep a bowl of cold water close by for dipping your hands into. The meat will not stick to wet hands.

• Place the baking tray in a pre-heated oven (200C/400F) for half-an-hour until they are nicely browned and cooked through.
• To test whether the meatballs are cooked, cut one in half. It should not be pink.

For the tomato sauce

• Chop the tomatoes and onion into 1cm (1/2″) dice.
• Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the onions. Let them sweat, covered, in the saucepan for 2 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes and increase the heat to bring them to the boil.
• Add the remaining ingredients, stir well and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes until you have a lovely mushy sauce.

Take care when adding the chilli. Dried chilli flakes can be quite hot so if you don’t want the sauce to have too much of a bite add the chilli flakes gradually and taste as you go.

• Remove the lid, add the mushrooms and continue simmering (without the lid) until the sauce is thick and glossy, and the mushrooms are cooked. This will take approximately 20 minutes. Keep your eye on it so it does not dry out.
• Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs, arranged on a bed of rice or pasta.

And there you have it – the easiest and quickest mid-week dinner.

Can I freeze spicy meatballs with tomato sauce?

You can freeze these meatballs, either cooked or uncooked.  Just arrange them, untouching, in a suitable container, and they will keep in the freezer, uncooked for up to 3 months, or cooked for up to 1 month.

I would let these defrost in the fridge, or you can defrost them in the microwave if you are in a hurry.  Then just cook them according to the recipe.

If you want to cook these from frozen you will have to add about 5 minutes extra onto the cooking time.

You can also freeze any leftover tomato sauce. Just ladle it into a suitable freezer container or ziploc bag and place in the freezer. This sauce will keep will for up to 6 months.

To defrost, tip the frozen sauce into a saucepan and heat gently until defrosted, then increase the heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and serve.

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Make miniature meatballs for a quick party snack

If you are looking for a quick party snack, you could make marble-sized meatballs.  Stick them onto cocktail sticks and serve with a bowl of  Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce (Nam Chim Kai) for dipping.  This recipe should be sufficient for about 40 miniature meatballs.

Convert grams to cups

To help you convert your recipes, I have created a handy Cookery Conversion Calculator which will convert ingredients between grams, ounces, tablespoons, cups and millilitres. I hope you will find it useful.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read about how to do this in this post on baking at high altitudes.

Recipe – spicy meatballs with tomato sauce

I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only.  If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.

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