I’ve been using ricotta in recipes more recently. There seems to be two types: one, a very wet ricotta sold in tubs and a drier ricotta sold in blocks. I find the latter more usable. In my early supper club days, I made the mistake of trying to make ricotta gnocchi for 35 people. It was a disaster and they all clumped together in the water. I was serving little clumps of soggy dough. The shame. I learnt some hard lessons: 1) don’t go out drinking the night before 2) test thoroughly before deciding to make it a course.
Using this drier ricotta, I made a baked version of ricotta balls in tomato sauce after trying a fried version at a fantastic pizza restaurant called Del CorsoAgostino Landi in Paestum, south of Naples.
An alternative is to not bake them and carefully add them to a pot of tomato sauce. It’s basically a vegetarian alternative to meatballs in spaghetti sauce.
Still it’s a low cal/high protein dinner. My granddaughter loved it.
Ricotta balls in tomato sauce
Ingredients
- 500 g ricotta
- 2 eggs
- 100 g pecorino or parmesan, finely grated
- 100 g breadcrumbs
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp italian oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
For the sauce:
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large brown onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tins crushed tomatoes
- 1 tbsp salt
- 5 bay leaves
Instructions
- You should probably make the sauce first and leave it to cool. Tomato sauces are always better when they've rested.
- Heat up the olive oil in a deep pan.
- Soften the onions then add the garlic.
- Add the tomato paste, stir briefly, then add the tomatoes, bay leaves and salt. Cook for half an hour or so on a low to medium heat then set aside.
For the polpette/ricotta balls:
- Drain the ricotta then mix it with the eggs, pecorino, breadcrumbs, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C
- Form golf balls with the ricotta mixture with your hands and place on a baking tray laid with silpat/parchment. Leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
To serve:
- Heat up the tomato sauce and serve the balls on top of the sauce. Add some fresh basil and more pecorino.
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