Tastes like home.

This dish of meteorite-sized meatballs swimming in a tomato and dill-addled sauce is a bigger, bolder version of the spaghetti bolognese my mum made for us growing up. And as a family we turn to it again and again.

 

Katrina says…

I didn’t come from a large, boisterous family of cooks. Rather, I learned in snippets from my beautiful grandmother, long before I knew the hold food would have over my life. So the reality is the meal of home for me growing up, like many kids, was a simple spaghetti bolognese. It is a meal my mother now makes for my children who seem to feel the same way about its magical powers to keep the world at bay. It tastes of home and comfort and security and is partly why I see food as an emotional endeavour as much as it is a gustatory one. Food fulfils many needs. It feeds the belly and the soul.

This dish of meteorite-sized meatballs swimming in a tomato and dill-addled sauce is a bigger, bolder version of the spaghetti bolognese my mum made for us growing up. And as a family we turn to it again and again.

There is absolutely nothing subtle about it. From the size of the meatballs to the piquant hit of pickles, the showering of dill and fried pickles to finish, cutting through the rich tomato sauce: they are the perfect bedfellows. It’s the kind of dish that can make your tastebuds come alive while simultaneously being so comforting you sigh with simple delight – like a contented baby that has just been swaddled.

The rhythm of life in our family is marked by meals and the spaces we carve out in our day or week to share them. When life is hard, a relationship with food like this is simple. Together, at the table, always. Life actually isn’t cloudy with a chance of meatballs: it is, in fact, truly delightful. Meatballs. Onwards.

 

Ingredients

Rolls six big ones

4 pita or a few pieces of white bread, coarsely torn
250ml milk
60g dill leaves, chopped
500g minced pork
500g minced beef
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, finely diced
1 egg
½ tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika
½ tablespoon each celery seeds, ground coriander and ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Generous glug of olive oil, for frying
Sliced sweet and spicy pickles, to serve

Saucy Sauce

3 tablespoon olive oil
2 onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves
1 small celery stalk, finely diced
pinch of celery seeds
pinch of ground coriander
125ml sweet and spicy pickle juice
140g tomato paste
120ml vodka
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup sliced sweet and spicy pickles, chopped
700ml tomato passata
250ml chicken stock
800g tinned crushed tomatoes

 

Method

If making the pastry in a food processor, it’s as simple as throwing it all in together and mixing until it forms a cohesive ball of dough. If mixing by hand (which is a lovely tactile task if you have the time), make a well in your flour and add the remaining ingredients except the water. Working with the tips of cool fingers, rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water to bring it all together, creating a single large ball of dough. Be sure to work fast so the butter doesn’t melt, and put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest before using it.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. On the stove, add the onion, olive oil and balsamic vinegar to a heavy-based pan and cook on medium heat until caramelised. In a separate pan, cook the sliced mushrooms in a pat of butter over medium heat until soft.

Meanwhile, roll out the pastry into a rough circle about 2mm thin, then transfer to an oiled baking dish.

Add the caramelised onion and spread evenly across the base. Sprinkle with half the fresh thyme, then spread the mushrooms evenly over the onion and add the last of the thyme.

Top with feta. Fold over the edge of the dough so that the cooking juices won’t escape.

Cook for 25 minutes in the oven until golden.

 

KATRINA MEYNINK’S KITCHEN KEEPERS: REAL-LIFE RECIPES TO MAKE ON REPEAT IS OUT NOW FROM HARDIE GRANT BOOKS.

 

Published in ed#738