Soutzoukakia (meatballs in tomato sauce)

Soutzoukakia (meatballs in tomato sauce)
5.0/5 rating (2 votes)

  • Serves: 5
  • Complexity: medium

Ingredients

  • 600g ground beef
  • 3-4 slices bread without crust
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 1 lightly beaten egg
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 onions finely chopped
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 450g tinned tomatoes with their juice
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • salt, pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

  1. Soak the bread in the water and in the half of the wine. Mix the minced meat, bread, egg, the 1 onion, garlic, salt, some pepper and the cumin. Knead the mixture well, mould into soutzoukakia (oblong meatballs) and bake or fry it in 80g butter.

  2. Sauté the second onion in the olive oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, cinnamon, slat, pepper, the rest of the wine and 1/2 cup of water. Boil it, until the sauce starts to thicken.

  3. Add the soutzoukakia in the tomato sauce and stir gently. Leave to simmer in low heat for 15 minutes, enabling the meatballs to absorb flavors from the tomato sauce. Put some more water in the meanwhile if needed. Serve soutzoukakia with rice or fried potatoes.

Tips

Greek Refugees from Smyrna (modern day Izmir) introduced "soutzoukakia smyrneika" recipe to the Greek cuisine in the beginning of the 20th century.

Tags

meat, tomato