Greek Meatballs

We were hungry for Greek food tonight so I decided to make some Greek meatballs. I remember reading about them in the New York Times a while ago. I decided to make some based on the recipe in the New York Times article. I

Greek Meatballs

Soutzoukakia Smyrneika

Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pound fresh tomatoes, peeled

1 T tomato paste

1/4 cup dry white wine
Pinch of sugar
Salt and ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/2 tablespoon butter

Meatballs

1 pound hamburger

1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 t cinnamon
Salt and ground black pepper
1 large egg
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. For the sauce:

To peel tomatoes just heat a pot of water to a boil. Drop in the tomatoes and boil for a minute or so. Then scoop the tomatoes out of the boiling water and drop them in ice water.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat olive oil and sauté onion until soft. Stir in garlic and tomato paste. Add the peeled tomatoes, squeezing tomatoes to break them up.

Bring to a boil. Add wine and sugar, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered until just starting to get thick, about 20 minutes. Add pepper flakes and butter, simmer 1 to 2 minutes.

At this point you can run the sauce through a strainer or leave it alone, depending on if you want tomato seeds in the sauce or not.

2. For the meatballs: Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl dump all of the meatball ingredients and stir until very well combined. Mix in enough extra-virgin olive oil to make mixture glossy and elastic.
3. Shape meat mixture into meatballs and place on an oiled tin foil lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour until done.

4. Lightly oil an 8-by-10-inch shallow casserole, or other baking dish in which meatballs will fit in a single layer. Pour sauce evenly on top of meat, and bake until lightly browned on top, about 20-30 minutes.