Italian Beef Meatballs with Tomato Basil Sauce - Gluten Free

Makes 74 meatballs
These are good to eat now or freeze. Depending on how many you are feeding I eat some and freeze some, as there’s only 2 of us and 37 meatballs each is a lot in one sitting!!!!
Meatballs
1 kilo beef
1 egg
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tab flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tab basil, finely chopped
1/3 cup almond meal
4 tab tapioca flour
1/4 teas salt
1/4 teas white pepper
a few grinds of black pepper
1/2 teas chilli flakes (optional)
oil for cooking that has a high cooking temp, so not olive oil
I always cook my onions, garlic, carrots and celery before adding them to the mixture, as otherwise they don’t have much of a flavour and they really just sort of boil inside the meatball!
Grab a large mixing bowl and throw in the meat, parsley, basil, almond meal, tapioca flour, salt, pepper, white pepper, chilli flakes and egg.
Finely chop the onion and garlic, by hand or put them in a food processor or whizz and let it do it for you. Heat a teaspoon of oil and add the onion and garlic to cook a little, while this is cooking finely chop your carrot and celery. When the onion has started to brown ever so slightly remove it from the pan and add it to the meat mixture. Now cook your carrot and celery in the pan, if it gets a little too dry add a couple of tabs of water to loosen it up. Makes sure all the water has cooked off before adding it to the meat mixture.
When all the ingredients are in the meat mixture, get your hands involved and mix this really well so that the flour, spices and egg are well mixed in. Roll into meatballs and place on a plate! Always try to keep your balls a similar size, this way they will all cook at the same time. Pop them in the fridge for 1/2 hour or so, to let them settle while you make your sauce.

Tomato Basil Sauce
This makes enough sauce for half the meatballs, if you want it for all the meatballs, just double the ingredients!
1 tin of tinned tomatos
2 tab tomato paste
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 bunch basil, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
chilli flakes or chilli (optional)
Heat 1 teas oil in a smallish pot and add onion and garlic and cook for a 1 or 2 minutes, don’t let them brown. Add all the other ingredients – tinned tomatos, tomato paste, basil, salt, pepper and chilli. Bring to the boil and then quickly turn it down and simmer on a really low heat to cook the flavors through!
While your sauce is cooking, cook your meatballs in a good non-stick pan. Place them in on one side until they are brown, then turn them over so they are brown on the other side, then just shake them around a bit every now and then until they are lightly brown and cooked. When you think they are cooked, take one out, cut it in half and check!
Place meatballs in a serving dish and pour the sauce over the top
Yummo!

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