Meatballs in spicy tomato sauce

This meatball recipe is perfect for dinner parties. If you're feeding kids, just remove the chillies and olives!

Ingredients

Method

1. In a large mixing bowl, using your hands, blend the meat, egg, garlic, parsley, cinnamon Piment and 2 teaspoons of flour. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Shape the mixture into golfball-sized balls, adding another tbsp of flour to lightly cover the meatballs. Heat the oil in a large, preferably shallow, flameproof casserole dish, and brown the meatballs all over, they don’t need to be fully cooked through. Set them aside.
2. For the sauce, heat a tbsp of olive oil in the same casserole dish and fry the onion and the diced ham until the onions are softened. Add the Piment and cinnamon and cook for a minute, then add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and 250 ml of water. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down, cover the pan and simmer for 15 mins. Add the olives, beams and browned meatballs to the sauce, together with any juices they have released.
3. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for 30 mins, then remove the lid and simmer for 10-15 mins. Check a couple of times during cooking and add a little more water if the sauce looks as if it is getting too thick. Serve with pilaf rice.

Recipe by Rick Stein