Pork Mince

(All Recipes have Gluten-Free Options)

Pork, Beef and Ricotta Meatballs with Tomato Sauce (Serves 6)

These meatballs are made from a combination of pork and beef, and are held together by the ricotta cheese rather than breadcrumbs, so have a lighter consistency. I have taken the recipe from Mary Heffernan’s cookbook ‘Five Mary’s Ranch Raised’. The tomato sauce is a basic one that I’ve used over the years, it is rich and garlicky. Served with spaghetti they make a crowd-pleasing dish – they should definitely be on your recipe list!…

For the Tomato Sauce:

6-9 cloves garlic, chopped

2 bay leaves

6 tablespoons olive oil

3 x 400g tins whole plum tomatoes

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Sea salt and black pepper

For the Meatballs:

450g minced pork

450g minced beef

250g ricotta cheese

30g grated Parmesan cheese (plus more to serve)

½ onion, finely chopped

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (I use Schwartz)

½ teaspoon ground fennel

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Chopped fresh basil leaves to garnish

Spaghetti to serve (gluten-free if required)

  1. For the tomato sauce, place the oil in a large, deep-sided frying pan over a medium-high heat, lightly brown the garlic with the bay leaves. Add the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, bring to a simmer, lightly crushing them with the back of a spoon. Simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Put aside whilst you make the meatballs.
  2. To make the meatballs, place the pork, beef, ricotta, Parmesan, onion, egg, Italian seasoning, ground fennel, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix gently with your hands until combined. Shape into meatballs, you should make about 28, each about 2 inches in diameter.
  3. Lightly oil a baking sheet and space the meatballs evenly on it. Place in a preheated oven, 220’c fan, for 20 minutes, until well browned on one side and cooked through.
  4. Loosen the meatballs from the baking tray into the tomato sauce. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook over a medium heat for about 20 minutes, gently moving the meatballs around occasionally.
  5. Serve with spaghetti and garnish with the chopped basil and more grated Parmesan.

The Very Best Sausage Rolls (with a gluten free option!!)

Seriously, this is the best sausage roll recipe you will come across!…The secret is the sausage meat, the combination of bacon and fennel with the pork mince really adds a burst of flavour. Apart from making the sausage meat, this recipe is very quick, as it uses ready rolled puff pastry. Any uncooked sausage rolls can be easily frozen and cooked at a later date.

Gluten Free Note: As you may know, I’m gluten free, and so I make these both with and without gluten, if I’m totally honest the gluten recipe is slightly better, however the gluten free option is still very good. I have recently discovered ‘Jus Roll Gluten Free Ready Rolled Puff Pastry’, and I was pleasantly surprised with it, it doesn’t puff up in quite the same way as the gluten puff pastry, hence those pictured are made with ‘proper puff pastry’, however they still taste rather delicious!

The sausage meat recipe requires ‘Panko’ Breadcrumbs, so as a gluten free option I use ‘Esgir, Gluten Free Crunchy Crumbs’, which are a great substitute.

For the Sausaage Meat

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 onion, finely chopped

1 stalk of celery, finely chopped

150g unsmoked streaky bacon, finely chopped

Olive oil

2 teaspoons fennel seeds, lightly toasted in a dry frying pan

500g pork mince

40g panko breadcrumbs (or gluten free crumbs – see note above)

1 egg, lightly whisked

½ teaspoon salt

Black pepper

For the Rolls

2 packets of Jus Rol Ready Rolled Puff Pastry (Gluten Free if required – see note above)

1 egg, lightly whisked

A little plain flour (gluten free if required) for rolling

  1. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion, garlic and celery for 2 minutes, then add the bacon. Cook for a further 2 minutes without browning. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.
  2. Add the fennel seeds, pork mince, breadcrumbs, salt and a little pepper and the egg, mix well using your hands.
  3. To make the rolls: lay out the pastry sheets on a lightly floured surface. Cut each rectangle of pastry in half lengthways, so that you have four pieces. Put the sausage meat in a compact log shape along the middle length of each piece of the pastry. For each piece: brush the egg along one long edge, fold the pastry over to meet this egg washed edge, seal tightly, then fold this sealed edge under the long roll.
  4. If you have the patience it is a good idea to refrigerate the long rolls for an hour before cooking, as it makes them easier to cut.
  5. When you are ready to cook them, cut each long roll into smaller lengths to create ‘sausage rolls’. Gently score each roll a couple of times with a knife and brush with the egg wash.
  6. Place on a baking tray and cook in a preheated oven, 180’c fan,  for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and serve warm.

Freezing Note: You can freeze unbaked sausage rolls, place in an airtight container in single layers with baking paper between each layer. You can cook them from frozen, brush with egg wash and place in a preheated oven, 180’c, for about 40 minutes.