Tomato Mascarpone Meatballs

Ingredients

• 500 g pork mince
• 250 ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 800 g chopped tomatoes
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 30 g parmesan, grated
• 300 g orecchiette
• 125 g mascarpone
• 15g basil, torn
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve

Method

1. Tip the pork mince, cooked red lentils, parmesan and oregano into a bowl. Season generously with salt and black pepper — this is your one chance to season the meatballs from the inside. Squash everything together with your hands until evenly combined and slightly tacky, then roll into 12 walnut-sized meatballs.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large deep frying pan or shallow casserole over a medium-high heat. Brown the meatballs in two batches — crowd them in all at once and the pan drops in temperature, water seeps out, and you'll have grey steamed meatballs instead of a deep mahogany crust. Turn them carefully every couple of minutes, 6 to 8 minutes total, then lift onto a plate. Leave the brown stuck bits in the pan — that's flavour.
3. Drop the onion and grated carrot into the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until softened and starting to catch gold at the edges. Stir in the garlic and tomato purée and cook for 1 minute until fragrant — watch the garlic, 60 seconds is the limit, because burnt garlic turns the whole sauce bitter. The purée should darken a shade and smell rich and savoury.
4. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and the chicken stock — the stock is what breaks the tinned tomatoes down into something that tastes of summer fruit rather than heated tin. Scrape up any fond from the base of the pan, season, and bring to a gentle simmer.
5. Tip in the orecchiette and return the meatballs along with any resting juices. Cover and cook for 12 to 14 minutes, stirring once or twice so the pasta doesn't catch on the base, until the orecchiette is tender and the meatballs are cooked through. The starch from the pasta will thicken the sauce as it goes — no separate pasta water needed here, the sauce is doing both jobs.
6. Stir in the mascarpone off the heat until the sauce turns soft, rosy and glossy and clings to every ridge of the pasta. Taste, season, taste again — adjust the salt now, not at the table.
7. Scatter the torn basil over the top, take the pan straight to the table with the sourdough alongside for mopping, and serve the dressed green salad in a separate bowl to cut through the richness.