Tuna Meatballs! Oh My!

Hello Peeps!

So I made this for dinner last night, and it far, far, FAR exceeded my expectations! When I first read 'Tuna Meatballs', I thought, you've got to be kidding Jamie Oliver!

But, as I should have expected, the recipe was simple, easy to follow, and oh so yummy! You could serve this with pasta, or rice, couscous or quinoa. I was craving veg, so I served it on a bed of smashed baby peas, and blanched cavalo nero (italian spinach).

I made the full recipe, which yielded around 20 'balls'. I cooked what I wanted to eat, and then put the remainder, in batches of 4, uncooked, into zip lock bags & into the freezer, ready to just pop in the pan another time.

Enjoy!


le migliori polpette di tonno

For the meatballs
• 400g/14oz sustainably sourced tuna
• olive oil
• 55g/2oz pinenuts *I didn't have pine nuts, so used pistachios, which worked very well*
• 1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 100g/3½oz stale breadcrumbs *I didn't have breadcrumbs, so used quinoa flakes. They worked so well!*
• 55g/2oz freshly grated Parmesan
• 2 eggs
• zest and juice of 1 lemon

for the tomato sauce
olive oil
• 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• red wine vinegar
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped


To make the meatballs:

Chop the tuna up into 2.5cm/1 inch dice. Obviously I wasn't fussed to measure the size! Just small chunks is fine.

Pour a good couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a large frying pan and place on the heat. Add the tuna to the pan with the pinenuts (or pistachios) and cinnamon. Season lightly with salt and pepper and fry for a minute or so to cook the tuna on all sides and toast the pinenuts. Allow to cool down for 5 minutes, in the pan.

Put the oregano, parsley, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, eggs, lemon zest and juice into a large bowl. Add the cooled tuna mix.

Now its time to get your hands dirty! Using your hands, really scrunch and mix all the flavours together.

Wet your hands, then grab a small amount, & roll it into a golfball kind of size & shape. If the mixture’s very sticky, add a few more breadcrumbs / quinoa flakes. Keep the meatballs around the same size and place them on an lightly oiled tray, cover, and pop into the fridge for an hour or so to let them rest.

To make the sauce:

Place a large pan onto a medium heat, and add a good glug of olive oil.

Add the onion and garlic and fry slowly for 10 or so minutes until soft.

Add the oregano, tomatoes, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, then liquidize until smooth.

Taste it! I added a good glug of some red wine that I had left over, and it really lifted it.

Finally, remove your rested balls (hee!) from the fridge. In the same pan that you cooked the tuna mix in, add a bit of olive oil, then some of the tuna balls. Don't put them all in at once - you need to cook them in batches.

Once browned & cooked on all sides, top with the warm sauce, and top with some fresh parsley.

I've finally fixed my internet -- and found an awesome recipe for Breakfast!

So, it's been (yet again) a little while but my internet problems have now been fixed! Huzzuh!

In the meantime, I have been endeavouring to find a breakfast meal that involves as little processed carbs as possible (toast, porridge etc), but still leaves me full.

The idea of having just eggs does not appeal: eggs belong on top of something, not just floating about the plate by themselves.

After a bit of google-ing, I came across a few variations of this recipe. I am not normally a fan of pumpkin, or sweet potato, but it has been growing on me the last year or so. At least to the point where my first reaction to it isn't 'Hell No!'

The great thing with this recipe is, once you've cooked the patties, you can wrap them in clingfilm, and keep them in the fridge to take to work (if you're like me & eat your breakfast in the office). That said, the chopped up mix will last a while in the fridge, and actually frying up the pattie is pretty quick. 

Don't worry if you can't get quinoa. I only through it in to help bind everything together, but the mix can hold up without it.

Anth's Breakfast Patties

1 half of a butternut pumpkin,

1 sweet potato,
2 cloves garlic
6 baby tomatoes,

olive oil

3 tablepsoons cooked quinoa

Preheat oven to 180'C.

Cut the pumpkin into large chunks, removing the skin. Peel the sweet potato & also cut into chunks. Halve the baby tomatoes, and crush the garlic cloves the the flat side of your knife.

Drizzle the veg w/ olive oil, season w/ salt & pepper to taste, and pop into the oven. Roast until veg is soft enough to insert a knife in easily, without being mushy. Around 35 mins or so.

Remove from oven & cool.

When cool enough to handle, dice the veg, and mix together w/ 3 tablespoons of the cooked quinoa (if using).

Mix everything together with your hands. You can now put the mix in the fridge, to be used as & when you need it, or you can cook up some patties now, for eating, or for later use (at work etc).

Take 2 table spoons of the mix, and form into a pattie. It will be pretty sticky!

Heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat, and pop in the pattie. Don't be alarmed if the pattie falls apart a bit, I just used a spatula to push it all back together again.

Cook over medium heat for 5 mins, then flip over & cook the other side.

To serve I topped w/ half an avocado, and a couple of poached eggs. Yummy!