A Mediterranean-style crowd pleaser
This great, one bake dish is great to make in advance and is a crowd pleaser. Serve with couscous, quinoa or crusty bread and a salad or cooked beans and peas.
Preparation: 20 minutes | Cooking: 1 hour | Suitable from 12 months and the whole family
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10 Portions
-
80 mins
prep time -
10 mins
Cook time -
suitable for freezing
Ingredients
- SAUCE:
- Handful of fresh oregano or flat-leaf parsley, chopped to serve
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 50g natural yogurt, plus extra to serve
- 50g breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- salt & pepper
- olive oil 4 tbsp
- 25g pine nuts, toasted
- 1 x 500g box of pasata
- Bread, couscous or cooked quinoa to serve
- 200g block of feta
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 100ml vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
- 2 tablespoons runny honey
- 1 tablespoon fresh or dried oregano
- MEATBALLS:
- 500g lamb mince
Method
- Mix all the meatball ingredients with lots of freshly ground black pepper and a big pinch of salt. Roll into 10-12 fat meatballs and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Heat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/Gas 3. Put the olive oil in a frying pan and, in batches, brown the meatballs well on all sides, then scoop out onto a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain off the oil.
- Safety discard of any remaining oil in the pan and add the chopped tomatoes, pasata, vegetable stock to the frying pan and bring to the boil, scraping up all the meaty bits as you do. Transfer to a deep baking dish or oven tray. Stir in, cinnamon, chilli flakes, honey and oregano, and some seasoning. Sit the meatballs in the sauce, then cover the whole dish with foil. Bake for 1 hour.
- Turn the heat up to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Remove the foil and break over the feta in chunks, then put back in the oven for 15 minutes. When it’s ready, scatter with parsley, sprinkle with pine nuts and dollop with a little yogurt. Serve with bread, couscous or quinoa.
