Mama’s boy meatball cuzzetiello
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 4
- Dietary
- Nut-freePregnancy-friendly
This is street food, Italian style! Meatball baguettes, dripping with tomato sauce and eaten hungrily with your hands.
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 2 x 400g tins San Marzano peeled whole tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- handful fresh basil leaves
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the meatballs
- 250g/9oz beef mince
- 250g/9oz Italian sausage meat, crumbled
- 150g/3½oz pecorino, grated
- 1 medium free-range egg
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 200g/7oz bread slices, crusts removed and soaked in milk
- vegetable oil, for deep frying
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Italian baguettes or banh mi baguettes, split, to serve
Method
To make the sauce, place all of the sauce ingredients in a large saucepan and pour in a full tin of water from the empty tomato tin. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 1 hour, or until smooth and the oil floats to the top.
To make the meatballs, preheat a deep-fat fryer to 180C. (CAUTION: hot oil can be dangerous. Do not leave unattended.)
Combine all of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into balls and deep fry fir 5 minutes until browned. Carefully transfer to kitchen paper to drain.
Add the meatballs to the sauce mixture in the pan and cook for 15 minutes.
To serve, cut the baguettes in half and hollow out the center. Fill with the meatballs and sauce. Wrap in paper and serve street-food style, eating with your hands and using lots of paper napkins.
