Until about a year or two ago I would never have considered buying pork meat because asides from sausages, ham and bacon I thought I did not like it. This is because growing up we never ate it at home as my Mum did not like it so it was not a meat we would have. However, my OH’s MUm invited us for tea one day a couple of years ago, and she had made a cottage pie using pork mince – eeeeeek! I thought but, because I am always telling Burton and Jenson they should try new things, I felt I could not make a ‘thing’ of the fact that I do not eat pork, so I ate some. And I liked it and so did the boys, and now I use pork mince quite a lot for cottage pies and bologneses .
At the weekend, I decided to try something a little different and make some pork and apple meatballs as I had a large pack of pork mince bought reduced (yes,I cannot resist a bargain), 3/4 of which I made a cottage pie with and the remainder I used to make these meatballs, which were really easy and only required 5 ingredients.
- 200g pork mince
- 1 large eating apple, peeled and grated
- 1 tsp dried sage
- pinch of black pepper
- 100g breadcrumbs - I used Finn Crisp Original Crispbread
- FOR THE SAUCE
- I roasted:
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 1 onion
- ½ head of broccoli
- 2 tsp crushed garlic
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 x 540 g bottle of Cirio passata
- pinch of sugar
- pinch of black pepper
- TO FINISH
- 1-2 tbsp oil
- enough pasta for your dinner guests, I used Garofalo pasta
- Place the pork mince in a bowl and add the grated apple, sage and black pepper and using your hands squish it all together.
- Break the crispbreads up - I used the end of a rolling pin and smashed them up and used my fingers to break them up even more
- Add the crushed crispbreads to the mince and with your hands mix it all together
- Then make 15-16 meatballs from the mixture and place in a container and chill in the fridge for a few hours/over night to firm up
- TO MAKE THE SAUCE:
- Place the vegetables chopped into chunks in a roasting pan with the oil, herbs and garlic
- and roast in an oven (200oC / 180oC (fan)) for about 20 minutes
- Place the Cirio Passata, the sugar, pepper and the roasted veg into a blender and blitz until smooth
- TO SERVE:
- Pre heat the oven to 180oC / 160OC (fan)
- Heat the oil in a non stick pan and brown off the meatballs and then transfer to the oven for 20 minutes to finish off
- Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the pack
- Drain the water and add the tomato and vegetable sauce and heat gently and then stir in the meatballs
- Serve with grated cheese if you wish
These meatballs were very easy to make and you could even get your children involved in making them as I am sure they would love squishing the ingredients together! They tasted great too and the apple adds a lovely subtle sweetness and keeps the meatballs moist, and makes for a lovely caramalised coating after cooking.
I used 3 ingredients from this months Degustaboxuk to make these meatballs. Degustaboxuk is a monthly subscription where for just £12.99 a month a box like this will be sent to you which includes the shipping, and all items included are made by well known brands and arive to your front door at the end of each month. You can see what was inside my box here (I forgot to take a photo!)
For more information about Degustaboxuk please visit their website . They also have a facebook page which you can find here and you can follow them on twitter too
I was sent a Degustaboxuk for the purpose of this review. The recipe is my own as are my comments which are honest.
Oh pork and apple sounds like a great flavour combination and I’ve just bought some pork mince.
I always buy pork mince – so lean & so cheap! These meatballs look lovely!
x
I love pork and apple together, these sound really tasty x
These look yummy – I love pork mince, especially for meatballs, sadly the Oh wouldn’t eat them with apple, but I definitely would! Yum!