Meatball Orzo Bake

Ingredients

• 400g pork mince
• 400g beef mince
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 40g parmesan, finely grated
• 750ml hot chicken stock
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 350g orzo
• 40g panko breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 onion, finely grated
• 3 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 200g mozzarella, torn
• Crusty bread, to serve
• Green salad, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C fan. In a large bowl, combine both minces with the cooled red lentils, parmesan, breadcrumbs, egg, crushed garlic, oregano and chilli flakes. Season generously with salt and pepper — this is your one chance to season the meat itself — and mix with your hands until just bound. Overworking it turns the texture rubbery. Roll into about 30 walnut-sized meatballs.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large ovenproof casserole over a medium-high heat. Brown the meatballs in two or three batches — don't crowd the pan. All in at once and the temperature drops, water leaches out, and you've boiled them grey instead of building a deep mahogany crust. Give each batch about 4 minutes, turning to colour most sides, then set aside on a plate. Leave the sticky brown bits in the pan — that's your fond.
3. Lower the heat to medium, add the remaining tablespoon of oil and the sliced garlic. Cook just until fragrant — 30 seconds, no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole sauce bitter, so watch it and don't let it go past pale gold. Add the chilli flakes and sugar and let them bloom in the warm oil for another 30 seconds until fragrant — raw chilli flakes taste dusty, bloomed ones taste of themselves.
4. Pour in the passata, chopped tomatoes and the chicken stock, scraping up the fond from the base of the pan — that stuck colour is pure flavour and the stock breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of summer fruit, not tin. Bring to a gentle simmer. Taste the sauce and season — it should taste vivid, not flat. Adjust now, not at the table.
5. Stir in the orzo so it settles into the sauce. The orzo will absorb the seasoned liquid as it bakes, so the sauce itself should already taste like the sea — well-salted pasta water principle, just built into the bake. Nestle the browned meatballs on top, cover tightly with a lid or foil, and bake for 25 minutes until the orzo is nearly tender and most of the liquid has been drawn up.
6. Uncover and scatter the parmesan evenly over the top. Return to the oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes until bubbling fiercely at the edges and burnished gold across the top. Taste a corner — adjust salt one last time if it needs it.
7. Rest for 5 minutes off the heat so the orzo finishes drinking in the sauce. It should be creamy underneath with a crisp cheese lid that cracks under a spoon.
8. To serve: tear the fresh basil generously over the bubbling crust at the table, and bring the casserole out whole with crusty bread for mopping and a sharp green salad alongside. Cool any leftovers in portions; reheat covered in the oven with a splash of stock to loosen.