Ricotta meatballs with polenta

This is the traditional way that they make meatballs in Sicily. I mix together minced pork and ricotta with the ground beef – the pork brings flavour and juiciness and the ricotta brings a lovely lightness. I serve them with polenta as they do during the colder months in Italy, but you could use spaghetti.

SERVES 4

PREPARATION TIME

25 minutes, plus chilling

COOKING TIME

about 40 minutes

200g each minced beef and pork

200g ricotta cheese

2 onions, diced

4 garlic cloves, crushed 1tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

80g Parmesan cheese, grated

40g fresh fine breadcrumbs

1 medium free-range egg, beaten

Sea salt

75g polenta

1-2tbsp olive oil

50g salted butter, plus 1tbsp, optional

400g cavolo nero, roughly chopped

FOR THE ROSEMARY TOMATO SAUCE

1tbsp olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed 1tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

400g tin cherry tomatoes 1tbsp tomato purée

1 Put the beef, pork, ricotta, onions, garlic, rosemary, Parmesan, breadcrumbs and beaten egg in a bowl and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. Using your hands, shape into 30 meatballs, and transfer to a plate. Cover and put in the fridge for 1hr to set so that they don’t crumble during cooking. You can also leave the meatballs in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze them for up to a month until you are ready to cook them.

2 While the meatballs are chilling, make the rosemary tomato sauce. Put a pan over a low heat and add the oil, then stir in the onion, garlic and rosemary and simmer for 2min. Add the tomatoes and tomato purée, season with salt and pepper and cook for 15min, stirring occasionally.

3 Next, get the polenta cooking. Pour 600ml water into a pan over a medium heat and season with salt and pepper. Once the water has come to the boil, whisk in the polenta. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 25min, stirring every 5min. Once cooked, stir in a tablespoon of olive oil or butter.

4 Now back to the meatballs. Put a frying pan over a medium heat and pour in 1tbsp olive oil, add the meatballs and brown on all sides. Then spoon the meatballs into the tomato rosemary sauce and cook for 15min.

5 Put the cavolo nero in a pan over a medium heat with the butter and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5min, turning the leaves with tongs so they cook evenly.

6 Divide the polenta between 4 warmed bowls, followed by the meatballs, an extra spoonful of the rosemary tomato sauce and the cavolo nero. Serve.