Soutzoukakia. Greek meatballs in tomato sauce

Soutzoukakia. Greek meatballs in tomato sauce
Random recipe review Filling meal 4.6/5 Better than the Italian version! 👩‍🍳 👨‍🍳 👩‍🍳 Jerry, aka Chef)

This went very well with spaghetti
Servings:	Serves 4
Calories per serving:	338
Ready in:	1 hour, 5 minutes
Prep. time:	15 minutes
Cook time:	50 minutes
Difficulty:
Recipe author:	Chef
First published:	28th May 2017

Soutzoukakia [or soudzoukakaia] are Greek pork meatballs, flavoured with garlic and onions, usually served in a tomato sauce.

I've added more garlic than usual and for a change, added the cumin and a good pinch of freshly ground fennel directly to the meatballs instead of the sauce. I think it's more traditional to add them to the sauce, but I'm putting chilli in the sauce.

Ingredients

Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩‍🍳 method for this recipe

• 50g [2 oz] dried breadcrumbs like Panko. About a cup full
• 75ml [5 tbsp] milk
• 450g pork mince - usually sold as sausagemeat
• 2 small onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil - plus more for frying the meatballs
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
• Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
• Good pinch of freshly ground cumin seeds
• Good pinch of freshly ground fennel seeds
• A saucer of plain flour or yellow cornmeal for dusting the meatballs before frying
• 1 400g can of peeled tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 small red chilli pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped [optional]

Mise en place

• Moisten the breadcrumbs in milk and leave to soak while you fry off the onions and garlic

• 

  Reheating in tomato sauce [for two people]

• 

  Frying half of the the meatballs

• 

  Dusting with white cornmeal

• 

  Meatball mixture ready to fry

• 

  Frying off the onions and garlic

• 

  Lots of fennel and cumin seeds

Method

1. Add a good pinch of black pepper to 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan
2. Gently fry the onions for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring now and then
3. Add the garlic and fry until it takes a little colour - remove the pan from the heat
4. Squeeze and discard any excess milk from the breadcrumbs and add them to a mixing bowl
5. Add the pork sausagemeat to the bowl and add the fried onions and garlic
6. Sprinkle with a little salt and add any other herbs you are using in the meatballs
7. Mix together with your hands until well combined and refrigerate until ready to fry
8. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan, form the mixture into small balls, roll in the cornmeal or flour and fry until browned nicely
9. Drain any excess fat and set aside.
10. Pop the tin of peeled tomatoes into a small pan together with a teaspoon of sugar, a bay leaf and any herbs or spices you want to add
11. Simmer gently for about 40 minutes then remove the bay leaf and puree using a stick blender. Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce and heat for the last 5 minutes.

Variations

These meatballs would be great on a pizza!

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