Penne with Meat Balls

Description:
Meat balls... who doesn't like them? This version of meat ball has tender texture with a tinge of chewiness, perfect for pasta dishes. This recipe is easy, fast and very tasty.

Usually, I pan fry meat balls for the pasta sauce. It takes ages, is a bit fiddly and the oil splatters on the stove. This time, I use the boiling method and it takes shorter time too!! Thanks Mbak Esther for the tips (you need to be her contact to read the content).

Don't throw away the stock, it can still be used for soup or other dishes. The boiling method also reduces the amount of fat if you are on a diet. If you want the low fat version, please feel free to use the lean meat. But a little bit of fat, makes the meat balls tender and moist. When I take this path, I will mix 'normal' mince pork and lean mince beef.


Ingredients:
Meat Balls:
250 g mince beef
250 g mince pork
1 egg, 59 g minimum mass
0.25 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion flakes
0.5 tsp white pepper
0.5 tsp salt
0.25 tsp ground allspice (Jamaica pepper/allspice pimento)
2 Tbsp milk powder, full cream
5 Tbsp cold water (75 mL) - otherwise, use milk
1 Tbsp olive oil (15 mL)


Stock for cooking the meat balls, simmer:
6 cups water with 5 tsp beef stock powder, Massel


Complete Meal...
about 300 g penne, Barilla, to be cooked al dente
1.5 - 2 bottles pasta sauce, Bertolli 5 brothers - Oven Roasted Garlic and Onion, 500g per bottle, depending how saucy you want
Grana Padano, shaved

Alternatively, serve the meat balls as part of sandwich.
Bread rolls
Salad (tomato, onion, lettuce, capsicum...)
Salad dressing (I like ranch dressing)
Cheese slices


Directions:
Put all ingredients for meat balls in a food processor. Mix at low speed for about 3 minutes. If no food processor, just mix all in a mixing bowl until well mix and slightly pasty.

Meanwhile, prepare the boiling stock in a small pot and keep the stock simmering.

Prepare a small bowl of cold water to dip in the spoon while shaping the meat balls. Put a blop of meat mixture in your palm and squeeze out some through the thumb and index finger to make a small ball. Make sure that the surface is pretty smooth, not splitting. Otherwise, the meat ball will split while being boiled.

Put the meat ball in the simmering stock until floating, let it cook for about 3 minutes. Take out from the stock and drain in a collander. Repeat the steps until finish.





Assembling...

If you want to give some brown colour to the meat balls, you can pan fry the balls with a little bit of oil (about 1-2 Tbsp). Otherwise, simmer the pasta sauce and add the balls. Mix with the cooked pasta and let it cook for another 3 minutes. Serve with grana padano.