Pork Meatballs and Orzo

Serves 6

As the air cools and plans turn indoors, this is exactly the kind of food that I’m making. A great dish for a group, a real ‘family meal’ vibe. Once you’ve finished cooking, bring the whole dish to the table and have everyone help themselves, topping generously with parmesan and herbs.

Meatballs
500g pork mince
2 tsp fennel seeds, toasted
2 eggs
50g parmesan
1/2 onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Handful of fresh parsley
11/2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
200g sweet Datterini tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
Handful of basil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2 pinches of salt
x2 400g tins chopped tomatoes (plus 2 full cans of water)
240g orzo

Meatballs
Toast the fennel seeds and then crush them to medium fine using a handheld blender or pestle and mortar. Mix all the meatball ingredients together and then roll out the meatballs to walnut size balls. Heat a little olive oil and in batches of 6-8 meatballs in the pan, cook the meatballs for 2 minutes on each side. Note: there are no breadcrumbs in this recipe which makes these fairly delicate meatballs to handle, so be careful when cooking them. Once cooked they firm up and are easier to handle when cooking them in the sauce.

Sauce
Add a little olive oil in a pan and set it over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook through for 8 or so minutes until soft and then add the fennel, chilli and Datterini tomatoes.

Add parsley, basil and season with salt. Tip in the tinned tomatoes as well as a 2 cans full of water. Bring everything up to the boil and then bring it down to a simmer and then allow to cook for 10 minutes with the lid on.

Add the cooked meatballs to the sauce, bring everything up to the boil again and the lower to a simmer for a further 6 minutes.

Remove lid and tip in the orzo and 150ml of water. Cook for 10mins stirring regularly to avoid the pasta sticking on the bottom.

Top with basil, parsley and parmesan.