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Lamb meatballs in dill tomato sauce

Lamb meatballs in dill tomato sauce

A rich, intense flavour - perfect for barbecuing

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 8 (with other dishes)

Preparation and cooking times

Ready in around 1 hour 45 minutes
Freezable

Method

  1. Whizz the bread to crumbs in a food processor, then tip into a bowl. Pulverise the lamb in the processor until pasty and tip into the bowl, too. Process the onion and garlic, and add to the bowl. Mix in salt and pepper, the spices, and the thyme leaves stripped from their stems. Roll into walnut-sized meatballs.
  2. Fry the meatballs over a high heat in olive oil, or grill brushed with oil until lightly browned. This should take 8-10 minutes. Set aside.
  3. Make the sauce. Lightly fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil without browning, stir in the tomato purée, the dill stems tied together, and the bay leaves. Tip in the canned tomatoes and seasoning and stir. Allow this to bubble for 10 minutes, then stir in the wine and vinegar and bubble for 10 minutes more or until thickened and reduced. Discard the dill, then taste and add more salt if needed. The meatballs and sauce can be made up to a day or two in advance.
  4. Preheat the oven to fan 180C/conventional 200C/gas 6. Tip the sauce into a baking dish (that will hold all the meatballs in a single layer), then place the meatballs in, too. Bake, loosely covered with foil, for 30 minutes. Now chuck in the cherry tomatoes and continue cooking uncovered in the oven for another 10 minutes until the tomatoes start to split and look just cooked. Before serving, chop the dill fronds, stir about half into the sauce and scatter the remainder on top.
Try

Good Food know-how

If you're barbecuing, you could grill the meatballs, wrap in foil with a little tomato mix and bake on the coals.

348 kcalories, protein 26g, carbohydrate 9g, fat 22 g, saturated fat 9g, fibre 2g, salt 0.43 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, September 2003.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • 21 June 2008

    Jo-Jo-Flo commented on this recipe

    Lovely recipe but personally found the red wine vinegar overpowering, so next time i used half the amount and it was even better!! Jo

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  • 23 June 2008

    ljwarrington rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    made this with veggie meatballs - and i thought it was scrummy! a little overpowering for my husband though.

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  • 12 February 2009

    Johnny rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 29 April 2009

    cabz07 commented on this recipe

    i just tried it today, i added peppers, carrot, thyme and rosemary, and slowly cooked it for 3hrs. turned out class, didnt use the vinegar, as it be a little acidic, just my taste i also added lamb boullioun to give it a little more lamb flavour

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  • 29 April 2009

    cabz07 rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo YK

    13 August 2009

    YK rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This dish came out very nice. I substituted red wine vinegar with balsamic, only a few dollops though. I put some allspice and cumin in the sauce too. Served it with cous cous, which turned out to be a great combination.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 8 (with other dishes)

Preparation and cooking times

Ready in around 1 hour 45 minutes
Freezable

Ingredients

FOR THE LAMB

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE

  • 1 medium onion , chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves , chopped
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp tomato purée
  • 1 large bunch of dill , fronds separated from the stems
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 400g can chopped tomatoes
  • 150ml red wine
  • 50ml red wine vinegar
  • 20 cherry tomatoes , larger ones halved
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348 kcalories, protein 26g, carbohydrate 9g, fat 22 g, saturated fat 9g, fibre 2g, salt 0.43 g

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