Happy Meatball Day! To celebrate, we are doing what we do best, eating! How about trying to make these delicious beef and ricotta meatballs for dinner tonight in honour of such a momentous day. Ricotta-spiked meatballs are so tender, so flavourful, and so delicious. We can guarantee they will taste… Bellissimo! Find our recipe below, as well as some tips if you really want to make a show of it.
Now there are meatballs and there are meatballs which are next level. Selecting the best ingredients can really make a difference to the end result. Here’s a guide to making the most of the simple ingredients.
The Beef in your Beef and Ricotta Meatballs
We recommend using a great-quality local ground beef. If you have an appliance which can mince your beef for you, you will love the result. If you ain’t got time for that, it’s totally fine. You can still get a lovely ground beef from your local butcher or speciality grocer. Either way, by using quality produce you will taste the difference.
The Ricotta
With cheese, it’s all about the milk. If your milk is good quality then the end result will be too. Ricotta is a very young, fresh cheese. Its delicate qualities are no match for preservatives or additives. Read your ingredients labels to find a quality ricotta which doesn’t contain any nasties.
(All Olympus Cheese products, including our ricotta, adhere to a simple philosophy. Great-tasting cheese, from quality milk and made without additives).
The Pasta and the Marinara
If you are a whiz in the kitchen, why not make your own pasta and tomato sauce too? We like this Quick Tomato Sauce recipe from Taste and this Pasta Pappardelle recipe from SBS food looks so good.
Beef and Ricotta Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1/2 brown onion, diced small
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 cup Olympus Ricotta
- 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pound beef mince
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 cup grated cheese
- 1/2 cup fresh basil
- 1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs made from day old bread
- 4 sage leaves
- 1 jar marinara sauce or make your own from scratch of course!
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Fry onion in 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan over medium heat until onion is clear. This takes roughly 5 minutes. Mix garlic into onion and switch off heat. Pour onion combination into a big mixing bowl.
- Stir ground beef, ricotta cheese, grated cheese, basil, parsley, egg, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper with onion mixture until almost joined; stir in bread crumbs and carry on mixing until thoroughly combined.
- Shape mixture into balls of about 3 cms in diameter.
- Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the same skillet used to cook onions. Put pan over medium heat and brown meatballs on all sides in hot oil, about 5 minutes.
- Pour marinara sauce and water over meatballs in pan. Add in sage leaves. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until meatballs are cooked through and no longer pink in the centre, about 30 minutes.