Thursday Breakfast: Baked Eggs & Tomatoes
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 6 chopped tomatoes or 1 x 400g tin of tomatoes
- 2-4 eggs
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Handful of fresh basil or parsley, roughly chopped
Method
- Warm the oil in a non-stick pan
- Add the onion and cook for 5/10 minutes until soft
- Add tomatoes and cook gently, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes
- Push the tomatoes out from the middle of the pan, making a small hole where you can gently crack the eggs, cover the pan and cook for 5 mins until eggs have gone opaque
- Season with black pepper, basil or parsley and serve immediately
Top Tip
Eat alongside a large serving of leafy greens such as spinach, watercress or kale. You can spice this dish up by adding some chopped or dried chilli flakes.
Thursday Dinner: Meatballs
Introduction
Meatballs are an infinitely versatile meal. Paired with a simple tomato sauce they make a traditional Mediterranean supper. In Thailand or Vietnam they might be poached in an aromatic broth. They can be braised, grilled, fried, poached or roasted, and work with a variety of flavours and cuisines. They can be made from most any type of meat, so long as it is minced: pork, beef, venison, fish, shellfish, chicken, turkey, and much more. The only thing to remember is that when they are made using leaner meats – such as chicken, turkey or fish – they should be cooked using a more gentle method. Other than that, there are no rules… experiment away!
The recipe given is for beef meatballs but also utilises a little pork, as beef can tend to dry out quite easily. The pork helps to keep them moist.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 400g minced beef or steak
- 200g minced pork
- 1 tsp. fresh thyme, picked
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp. oil – any oil will do
- 500ml fresh tomato sauce or passata
Method
- Place the minced beef and pork in a bowl and add the salt. Gently mix the two meats together to combine, and to disperse the salt evenly. Cover and refrigerate for 10 minutes. This allows the salt to bond the proteins in the meat, firming it up and giving a better cooked texture.
- Remove the meat from the refrigerator after 10 minutes and add the thyme and a good few turns of black pepper. Form into balls approx. 5cm in diameter.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and sear the meatballs to seal them all over and add a little colour.
- In a separate saucepan, heat the tomato sauce. Add the seared meatballs to the sauce and cook over a low flame for 10-12 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through.
Serving suggestions
A variety of herbs and spices can be used with this recipe. Fennel seeds, for example, are a great match to both pork and beef, and smoked paprika works well, as do fresh basil, sage, or cumin. Modify the seasoning used to depending on what you intend to serve with them. Courgetti, which are courgettes turned using a spiralizer to create spaghetti-like strands, salted for 20 minutes (which causes them to firm up) before being tossed in a hot wok make a great accompaniment to good old fashioned meatballs in tomato sauce.