Donal's Real Time Recipes airs Wednesday at 8.00pm on RTÉ One.
Ingredients
Serves: 4
Time: 40 minutes
For the meatballs
- 250g minced beef
- 250g minced pork
- 50g breadcrumbs
- 60ml buttermilk
- 50g parmesan cheese, finely grated, plus extra to serve
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tsp chilli flakes, plus extra
- 1 tsp dried oregano, plus extra
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
For the tomato butter sauce
- 250g cherry tomatoes
- 75g butter
- 350g fresh tagliatelle
- For the gremolata
- Handful of basil leaves
- Handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 garlic clove
Method
- Firstly, mix together all the ingredients for the meatballs in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper.
- Roll into large, walnut sized balls and place onto a tray.
- Now, get a large saute pan over a medium heat and add some oil. Add the meatballs and allow to brown.
- Whilst this is happening, slice half of your tomatoes in half and leave the rest whole.
- When the meatballs are browned, nestle the tomatoes around the meatballs. Add the butter, and another pinch of oregano and chilli and leave everything to blip away on a low heat.
- Make the gremolata. Finely chop the basil and flat leaf parsley, the grate over the zest of a lemon and 1 garlic clove.chop everything together until fine then season with salt and pepper. Get this mixture into a bowl and then slowly stir in the olive oil.
- Finally, cook pasta in boiling, salted water
- Now, using tongs, transfer the cooked pasta to the pan with the sauce,pushing the meatballs to the side of the pan. Stir, adding pasta water if necessary to get a lovely, silky sauce.
- Serve meatballs and pasta, topped with gremolata and a few fresh basil leaves.
