Meatless Meatballs with Tomato Ragu and Tagliatelle

We really love this dish. It’s a great comfort food for a rainy spring afternoon. Indeed, its super healthy and full of fibre. You can make the meatballs vegan by removing the egg. The egg helps to bind them, so by removing it, the consistency may be altered. Nonetheless, the meatless meatballs and tomato ragu areenvironmentally friendly and sustainable. Why not try it and let us know how you get on?

Top tip, the longer and slower you look the tomato rage the richer the flavour. Keep it on a low heat and let it simmer away.

Ingredients

Tomato Ragu

• 1 onion diced
• 2 large cloves of garlic, pealed and chopped
• olive oil
• 4 sun dried tomatoes, sliced
• 2 tsp. dried or fresh oregano
• Bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary & basil
• 1 handful of fresh basil  (and marjoram if you can get it) – chopped
• 3 x 400g tins of quality Italian plum tomatoes. Or 1-2 jars of tomato passata.
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1tsp. soy sauce or tamari for your umami flavour
• extra virgin olive oil

Vegan Meatballs

• 400g Red Lentils
• 400g Sliced Mushrooms
• 50g Diced Onion
• 1tsp. Crushed Garlic
• 1tsp. Chopped Basil
• 1tsp.  Chopped Parsley
• Season to taste
• 60g Porridge Oats
• 100g Breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 bag of tagliatelle

Method

Tomato Sauce

• Sweat off garlic and onion with 2 tablespoons of olive oilover a medium heat until the onions turn soft and translucent.
• Add the oregano, rosemary, thyme, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, tamari
• Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1 hour.
• Pick the basil or marjoram and roughly chop, then add to the pan.
• Season well to taste, and finish with 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Meatless Meatballs

• Pre-heat oven to 175C.
• While the tomato sauce is simmering make the meatballs – sans meat!
• Wash the lentils in a sieve. Place lentils in a pan and with water. Bring the the voice, reduce heat and simmer until soft.
• Sweat off off onion in a pan with some olive oil until soft and translucent. Add garlic, them mushrooms and sweat off for a further 5-6 minutes, or until soft.
  • To ‘sweat off’ put the lid on and have the pan over a medium to low heat. Make sure it doesn’t stick.
• Place onions, garlic, mushroom in a blender.
• Drain the lentils if need be. Add the lentils to the blender too.
• To the blender add salt & pepper, basil, oats, egg and bread crumbs. BLITZ!
• Once combined, remove mixture from the blender and place into a bowl. Shape mixture into into balls.
• Place on a greaseproof lined baking tray and bake in the oven @ 175 for 20 mins,.
• Cook the taglitelle in boiling salted water until al dente or to your liking.

Serve

• Once the tagliatelle is cooked drain in a colander.
• In a pan add the tomato sauce to the tagliatelle.
• Service on a plate with the meatless meatballs.
• Garnish with parmesan if you wish, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a few basil leaves.