Italian Meatballs with Raisins and Pine Nuts
These will be the most tender meatballs you've ever had! It's thanks to the technique of soaking bread in milk before being added to the meatball mixture. Made with ground beef, eggs, raisins, pine nuts, parsley, parmigiano reggiano and garlic, these meatballs are fried then simmered in a simple tomato sauce. It's guaranteed to be your new favorite meatball recipe!
Servings 14 meatballs
Calories 244kcal
Ingredients
For the meeatballs
- 500 grams regular ground beef
- ¼ cup raisins
- 2 tablespoon pine nuts
- 2 cups bread preferably one day old, cubed
- 1 cup milk
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon parsley minced
- 2 tablespoon parmigiano reggiano grated
- salt and pepper to taste
- To fry: ½ cup olive oil
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- 3 cups passata
- 1 clove garlic
- 6 leaves fresh basil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the raisins in a bowl of warm water for about 10 minutes. This will rehydrate them.
- Place the bread in a small bowl and cover it in the milk. Set aside.
Make the sauce
- Turn the stove on to medium heat. In a large pan with high sides, add the olive oil and heat up until shimmering.
- Add the full, peeled garlic clove. When the garlic clove is fragrant, after a few minutes, add the passata.
- Wash out the passata jar or measuring cup with water, and add about 1 cup of that water to the passata.
- Throw in the basil and let the sauce cook until slightly thickened, about 10-15 minutes. Remove the garlic clove and season with salt and pepper.
- If sauce is done cooking before you’re done making and frying the meatballs, turn the temperature down to low to keep warm.
Make the meatballs
- Drain the raisins from the water. Squeeze the milk out of bread. This bread will be used for the meatballs. Discard the milk, or use for another purpose.
- Add all the meatball ingredients to a large bowl. With your hands, mix all the ingredients together until fully mixed in.
- Form the mixture into meatballs, about 2-3 inches in diameter.
- When all the meatballs are formed, in a large pan over medium heat, heat up the olive oil.
- Add the meatballs to the pan, and fry. Fry them on all sides, using tongs to turn them. They will need to be almost fully cooked, but slightly undercooked is ok, as they will finish cooking in the sauce.
- Once the meatballs are fried, add them to the pan with the sauce. Cook the meatballs in the sauce for about 10-15 minutes, or until fully cooked through.
- You can use any extra tomato sauce for pasta if you’d like!
Nutrition
Calories: 244kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 218mg | Potassium: 440mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 344IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 91mg | Iron: 3mg