Baked meatballs in tomato sauce
- Prep time: 60 min
- Cook time: 40 min
- Serving: 10
- Note + 1 hour resting in the fridge
PRESENTATION
Baked meatballs in tomato sauce get a serious upgrade here: the meatballs are fried first, then finished in a thick tomato sauce, then blanketed in grated cheese and run under heat until the top develops a deep golden-brown crust. Chef Roberto Valbuzzi of Ristorante Crotto Valtellina named this his piatto del cuore—his most personally meaningful dish—and shared it in a vodcast conversation with psychotherapist Michele Mezzanotte.
That context matters, because the technique itself is straightforward enough to make with children in the kitchen. What carries the dish is the gratin finish: it adds the crust that turns an everyday meatball supper into something worth setting the table for, while the tomato sauce underneath stays loose and glossy from the pan heat. Serve straight from the skillet, and keep bread nearby—the sauce that collects at the bottom is exactly the kind worth soaking up.
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INGREDIENTS
- Ingredients for 80 meatballs
- Ground meat blend 2.2 lbs (1 kg)
- Bread 7 oz (200 g)
- Whole milk 2.1 cups (500 g)
- Fine salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- Oregano to taste
- Nutmeg to taste
- Sweet Paprika to taste
- Cumin to taste
- Thyme to taste
- for the sauce
- Tomato purée 2 ½ cups (600 g)
- Oregano to taste
- Fine salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- Shallot 1
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- for frying
- Peanut seed oil to taste
- to garnish
- Pecorino Romano PDO cheese 7.1 oz (200 g)
- Basil to taste
How to prepare Baked meatballs in tomato sauce
To prepare the baked meatballs in tomato sauce, start with the mixture. Tear the bread into pieces 1 and put it in a bowl, then pour the milk over it 2 and sprinkle with salt 3.
Add the thyme, the oregano 4, the paprika 5, the nutmeg 5, the cumin and the black pepper 6.
Mix 7, then add the well-drained bread to the mixed ground meat 8 and knead with your hands 9.
You should obtain a soft and homogeneous mixture 10. Take a portion of mixture of about 3/4 oz (20 g) and shape it between the palms of your hands to form a meatball 11. Continue in the same way until the mixture is finished, placing the meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper as you go 12. Transfer the meatballs to the refrigerator for 1 hour to firm them up, so they will hold their shape better during cooking.
Now prepare the sauce. Clean and finely chop the shallot 13. Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a small saucepan, add the chopped shallot 14 and let it soften gently for 4-5 minutes. Add the tomato purée 15.
Season with salt 16 and pepper 17 and flavor with oregano 18.
Stir and let simmer over low heat until the sauce is well reduced 19, this will take about 15 minutes. Move on to cooking the meatballs. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan and immerse the meatballs, a few at a time if necessary 20. Cook them, turning during cooking, so as to get an even browning on all sides 21.
When they are nicely browned 22, drain them with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a tray lined with paper for fried foods to remove excess oil 23. Discard the oil used for frying the meatballs 34.
Put the meatballs back into the same pan 25. Pour over the previously prepared tomato sauce 26 and distribute it well so that all the meatballs are coated. Sprinkle the surface with grated Pecorino cheese 27 and gratin in the oven at 410°F for 5 minutes 28.
Remove the baked meatballs in tomato sauce from the oven 28 and scent them with fresh basil leaves 29 before serving 30.