Baked Meatballs with Mozzarella

Ingredients

• 400g beef mince
• 400g pork mince
• 1 egg
• 75g breadcrumbs
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 50ml milk
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 200g mozzarella, torn
• 15g fresh basil, torn
• Dressed green salad, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan / 220°C / Gas 7. In a large bowl, combine the beef and pork mince with the cooled lentils, onion, crushed garlic, breadcrumbs, egg, milk, oregano and a generous pinch of salt and black pepper — season the mix properly now, because this is where the meatballs themselves get their flavour. Bring it together with your hands until just combined; overworked mince turns rubbery on baking.
2. Shape into 16–18 even meatballs, rolling firmly between your palms so they hold together in the sauce. Set aside while the pan heats.
3. Heat a splash of oil in a stainless or cast-iron frying pan over a medium-high heat until it shimmers. Sear the meatballs in two batches — crowd the pan and the meat steams in its own juices instead of browning, and you lose the crust that carries the whole dish. Turn every minute or so until deeply coloured all over, about 4–5 minutes a batch. You're after a proper caramelised exterior; the oven finishes the inside.
4. While the meatballs sear, tip the chopped tomatoes into a blender with the roasted red pepper, tomato purée, olive oil and the stock. Season with salt and pepper and blitz until smooth — the stock is what breaks the tomatoes down into a proper sauce rather than leaving them tasting of the tin. Pour into a shallow ovenproof dish.
5. When the second batch of meatballs comes out, the pan will have sticky brown fond on the base — that's pure flavour. Splash in a ladle of the blended sauce, swirl for 20 seconds to lift the stuck bits, then tip it all back into the ovenproof dish and stir through. Taste the sauce now and adjust the salt — if it's flat, it needs more.
6. Note: the garlic in the meatballs cooks gently inside the mince, so it won't burn — but if you ever brown garlic loose in a pan, watch it like a hawk and pull it at pale gold and fragrant, around 30 seconds. Burnt garlic turns bitter and there's no rescuing it.
7. Nestle the browned meatballs into the sauce so they sit snugly, then scatter the torn mozzarella evenly over the top. Bake for 20–25 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through (centres hot and no longer pink), the sauce is bubbling thickly at the edges, and the cheese is golden in patches.
8. Pull the dish out and let it rest for 3 minutes — the juices settle back into the meatballs and the sauce tightens. Taste the sauce one more time and adjust the seasoning before it goes to the table.
9. Scatter generously with torn basil, bring the dish to the table whole, and serve with a sharply dressed green salad alongside to cut through the richness.