Lamb Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Name: Lamb Meatballs with Tomato Sauce
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 4 garlic cloves; 2 large banana shallots; 2 tablespoons light olive oil, plus 3 more for frying the meatballs; 700 g good lamb mince; 2 stalks of rosemary; 100 g fresh white breadcrumbs; freshly grated nutmeg; flaked sea salt and ground black pepper; 50 ml whole milk; lightly seasoned plain flour; extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese, to serve; 300 ml red wine; juice of 1 lemon; 1.2 kg ripe tomatoes; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 teaspoon caster sugar; 1 cinnamon stick; 2 tablespoons tomato purèe; 2 level teaspoons flaked sea salt; finely grated rind of 1 unwaxed or well-scrubbed lemon; 2 garlic cloves; a large handful of flat leaf parsley leaves

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

What to Eat Now (Spring & Summer)

By Valentine Warner

Published 2009

About

A meatball should be succulent and giving, whether it is sitting in a nest of spaghetti or jammed in a crispy baguette with sauce dribbling out of the end. They should not bounce when thrown at the wall. In this recipe, I like to see them drowned in sauce.

Ingredients

2 large banana shallots
4 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons light olive oil, plus 3 more

Main course

Method

To make the sauce, cut a small cross in the bottom of each tomato, then cut out and discard the stem bases. Place the tomatoes in a large mixing bowl. Pour over enough just-boiled water to cover and leave for 1 minute. Pour the water away and unrobe the loose skins from the flesh.

Chop the tomatoes in no particular fashion other than smallish. Put the oil in a large, shallow ovenproof c