Pasta with meat sauce and baked meatballs
by Tavolino
A rich Sunday one-dish meal consisting of short pasta tossed in a savory meat sauce and fried meatballs, all baked until golden with gooey scamorza cheese and Parmesan.
Ingredients
- Fusilli bucati 400 g
- Smoked scamorza cheese 150 g
- Grated Parmigiano Reggiano 100 g
- Butter 20 g
- Ground beef (for meat sauce) 600 g
- Carrot 0.5
- Celery stalk 1
- Onion 1
- Extra virgin olive oil 30 ml
- Tomato purée 500 g
- Tomato paste 20 g
- Red wine 100 ml
- Salt 10 g
- Black pepper 2 g
- Ground beef (for meatballs) 400 g
- White sandwich bread 50 g
- Egg 1
- Parsley 10 g
- Vegetable oil for frying 500 ml
Preparation
- 1
Finely chop 0.5 carrot, 1 celery stalk, and 1 onion.
- 2
Heat 30 ml of extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the chopped vegetables.
- 3
Add 600 g of ground beef and brown well over medium-low heat.
- 4
Deglaze with 100 ml of red wine and let the alcohol evaporate.
- 5
Stir in 20 g of tomato paste dissolved in a little water and 500 g of tomato purée.
- 6
Season with salt and pepper and simmer the meat sauce over low heat for 60 minutes, adding water if necessary.
- 7
Soak 50 g of white sandwich bread in milk, then squeeze it out well.
- 8
In a bowl, mix 400 g of ground beef, 1 egg, 80 g of Parmesan, the bread, and 10 g of chopped parsley.
- 9
Shape the mixture into meatballs and fry them in 500 ml of vegetable oil at 160°C until golden brown.
- 10
Drain the meatballs on paper towels to remove excess oil.
- 11
Cook 400 g of pasta in salted water for 5 minutes, then drain and cool under cold running water.
- 12
Toss the pasta with 3/4 of the prepared meat sauce.
- 13
Grease a baking dish with 20 g of butter and arrange a layer of pasta, half of the diced scamorza, and Parmesan.
- 14
Add the meatballs, cover with the remaining pasta, the leftover meat sauce, the scamorza, and Parmesan.
- 15
Bake in a preheated static oven at 200°C for 25 minutes.