Mighty Meatballs in a Smoky Chipotle Sauce

Serves 6

Takes 2 hours

Mincemeat, one of the most used yet often underrated meats. Incredibly versatile and frugal in price, it can feed the hoards in an array of different meals. We are celebrating our delicious, flavourful mincemeat with big meaty balls and in true Ginger Pig fashion – we have not scrimped on size. Perfect for a big family or simply for batch cooking and will freeze beautifully for up to 3 months. Make sure to serve with hunks of crusty bread, ready to mop up all that lovely smoky sauce.

1. To make your balls, combine all the meatball ingredients into a large bowl and mix well to form a thick paste.
2. Dampen your hands slightly and gather a generous helping of the patty mix – these are for sizeable balls, similar to the size of a tennis ball!
3. Roll the mix around in both palms to form a smooth meatball and place on a tray whilst you do the rest.
4. When all your balls are made, set a wide frying pan on a medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil and place in your balls, brown on all sides then set aside – you may have to do this in batches.
5. Preheat your oven to 180C fan.
6. Now to make the smoky sauce, in a separate oven-proof pot, add in 1 tbsp olive oil and set on a medium heat. Add in the chopped onions along with a pinch of salt, cook down for 8 minutes until softened and golden, be careful not to let them catch if they are looking as though this will happen, add a splash of water to help steam down.
7. Add in the garlic and fry until smelling fragrant, add in the tomato paste and cook out for a further 4 minutes then add the chipotle paste and cook for 2 mins.
8. Pour in the tinned tomatoes, beef stock and sugar, stir well to combine then season with salt to your taste.
9. Bring the pan up to boil then turn the heat down slightly and let blip away for 30 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened almost by half.
10. Place your meatballs into the smoky sauce, nestling then into the pot but still poking out slightly.
11. Pop in the oven for 15 minutes.
12. Remove, then tear the mozzarella all over everything, grate a generous amount of pecorino all over then place back in the oven for another 15 minutes.
13. At this stage you may need to give the mozzarella a nice crust so switch the oven to grill and allow to bubble and colour for 5 minutes or so.
14. Serve in the pan, along with hunks of crusty bread for dipping. Grate over a final flourish of pecorino and scatter over some basil leave for freshness. Enjoy!

For the meatballs:

• 1kg beef mince meat
• 3 tsp garlic granules
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 eggs
• 1 white onion, finely diced, fried until golden and cooled
• 300g finely chopped bacon
• 150g breadcrumbs
• Olive oil

For the Chipotle Sauce:

• Olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 180g chipotle paste
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 300ml beef stock
• 2 balls of mozzarella
• Pecorino, for grating
• Basil leaves, roughly torn for garnish
• Crusty bread, for dipping (optional)