Beef And Pork Meatballs In A Tomato And 'piment' Sauce

“This recipe comes from a market stall in Prades, in southern France” - Rick Stein. This is an edited extract from Rick Stein’s Secret France by Rick Stein with photography by James Murphy (BBC Books, $49.99).

Servings

Total time

minutes

Cuisines

Italian

Courses

Dinner

Ingredients

400 g minced beef
pork
1 egg (lightly beaten)
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped or grated)
small handful flat-leaf parsley (chopped)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp piment d’espelette (or smoked paprika)
2 tbs plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
¼ cup olive oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion (finely chopped)
100 g unsmoked lardons (or cubes of cooked ham)
1 tsp piment d’espelette (or smoked paprika)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
6 tomatoes (cores removed, chopped)
1 tbsp tomato paste
150 g pitted green olives (drained)
400 g can cannellini beans (drained)

Method

In a bowl, mix meats, egg, garlic, parsley, cinnamon, piment and 2 tbs flour. Season and blend well. Using your hands, shape mixture into golfball-sized balls, adding another 1 tbs flour if mixture feels too wet. Roll the balls in flour to lightly coat. Heat oil in a shallow flameproof casserole dish and brown meatballs all over. Set aside.
For sauce, heat oil in the same casserole dish and fry onion and lardons or ham until onion softens. Add piment and cinnamon and cook for a minute, then add tomato, tomato paste and 250ml water. Season. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add olives, beans and meatballs with any juices they released. Cover, cook over low heat for 30 minutes, then uncover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, adding a little more water if sauce gets too thick. Serve with pilaf rice.