Matkonation

I love making meatballs. Meatballs are the food that most reminds me of home-cooking. I usually prepare them in their classic form, with tomato sauce (olive oil, chopped onion, chopped canned tomatoes, a tad bit sugar, salt and pepper). When I make them in the tomato sauce, I make the sauce in a saucepan and sauté the meatballs in a separate pan, and only after sautéing do I add the meatballs to the simmering sauce. This time around, it was already late at night and I was quite tired (yeah- I went the lazy route- so…), so I decided to skip the whole two-pot deal and decided to combine the sautéing and sauce in one single pan. And that my friends, is the way I got these delicious, easy to make, lemony meatballs (that go great with rice or mashed potatoes).

Ingredients for 30 meatballs:

1½ pounds ground beef

1 medium onion, finely chopped

⅓ cup breadcrumbs

2 eggs

Zest from one lemon

¼ cup fresh mint, coarsely chopped

Salt and fresh ground pepper

For sautéing:

⅓ cup canola oil

For the sauce:

⅓ cup fresh lemon juice

⅓ cup water

1 lemon, finely sliced

Salt and fresh ground pepper

For serving:

⅓ cup fresh mint, coarsely chopped

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the meatballs.  Make 1½-inch balls out of the mixture.

2. Heat a large pan on medium heat and add the oil. Working in batches, saute the meatballs for around 10 minutes, until golden.

3. Return all meatballs to the pan (retaining the liquid from the meat) and add the lemon juice and water and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper and cook for around 10 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. The sauce is not supposed to cover all the meatballs, but you should shake the pan around a bit while cooking to coat them. Garnish with the chopped mint and serve.