{"id":4040,"date":"2026-10-13T10:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/?p=4040"},"modified":"2026-10-13T10:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:13:15","slug":"spicy-fennel-meatballs-in-tomato-sauce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/spicy-fennel-meatballs-in-tomato-sauce\/","title":{"rendered":"Spicy Fennel Meatballs in Tomato Sauce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The inspiration and a loose adaptation of this dish came from the book \u201cPolpo\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The meatballs can be also served as <em>cicchetti<\/em>, just stick a toothpick into individual meatballs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Otherwise they make for a delicious meal on their own accompanied by a rocket salad with shaved parmesan and perhaps some crunchy bread on a side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">For about 40 meatballs:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">600-650 g of minced beef<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">400-450 g of minced pork<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1 tablespoon of fennel seeds<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">a couple of pinches of chilli flakes or half of a small dried red chilli (this is optional in case you wish your meatballs to be on a milder side)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1 egg<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">70-80 g of breadcrumbs<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">a few pinches of salt<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">a few pinches of black pepper<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">For the tomato sauce:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1 onion, chopped<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">2 garlic cloves, finely chopped<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">half of a small dried red chilli or a couple of pinches of chilli flakes- 4-5 pinches of dried oregano<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0a tip of a teaspoon of sugar<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">salt and black pepper to taste<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1 l of tomato passata or peeled tinned tomatoes<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">3 tablespoons of olive oil<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Begin with the sauce:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In a large pot heat up the olive oil, add the chopped onion and fry for about 5 minutes. Next add the garlic as well as the chilli and fry all together until the onion turns translucent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Pour in the passata, season with the oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Give it a stir and let it bubble away on a low to medium heat without the lid. Add more salt if needed and stir occasionally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Whilst the sauce simmers on the stove, make the meatballs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In a hot pan toast the fennel seeds along with the chilli pepper or chilli flakes for a few minutes. Shake the pan often and be careful not to burn the spices. Once you notice that the seeds start to release their aroma, switch the heat off. Wait for a few minutes and grind the spices using mortar and pestle (or a coffe\/ spice grinder).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Place all the ingredients for the meatballs along with the ground spices into a large bowl.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mix all the ingredients using your hands until very well combined.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Roll in your hands small balls, more or less the size of a walnut, and put them directly, one by one, into the pot with the simmering sauce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Gently stir or shake the pot to allow the meatballs to move around and cover with the sauce. Don\u2019t worry if initially all the meatballs are not covered with the sauce. It will change during cooking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cook everything on a low heat for about 1 hour or so with the lid on giving it a stir avery 15 minutes. Taste the sauce and season again if needed before serving.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inspiration and a loose adaptation of this dish came from the book \u201cPolpo\u201d. The meatballs can be also served as cicchetti, just stick a toothpick into individual meatballs. Otherwise they make for a delicious meal on their own accompanied by a rocket salad with shaved parmesan and perhaps some crunchy bread on a side. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/spicy-fennel-meatballs-in-tomato-sauce\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Spicy Fennel Meatballs in Tomato Sauce&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,5],"tags":[783,784,69,599,642,778,779,781,782],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4040"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4046,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions\/4046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}