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Meatballs in barbecued aubergine and tomato sauce

Thesemeatballs in barbecued aubergine and tomato saucecan be cooked in several stages. First, barbecue the aubergine, then make the sauce and finally cook the meatballs. It’s an ideal dish for parties, dinner parties or easy family meals (just reheat the sauce and add the cooked meatballs - this will only take 10 minutes, while you can cook some pasta to serve with).
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Resting Time 4 hours
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Calories: 1234
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 16 good quality ready to cook meatballs (beef or lamb)
  • 1 barbecued aubergine
  • 1 large barbecued onion
  • 1 barbecued red pepper
  • 1 kg small ripe tomatoes
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 chilli optional
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 handful parsley
  • Pasta of your choice

Method
 

  1. Barbecue the aubergine, onion and pepper, then put them in a bowl, cover and cool.
  2. You can chill them in the fridge until you’re ready to make the sauce.
  3. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  4. Rinse the tomatoes and put them in a large baking tray. Tuck the garlic cloves and chilli between them. Drizzle with the olive oil, dust with the oregano and spices, then season with salt & pepper. Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes until they are tender.
  5. Transfer the roasted tomatoes and their cooking jus to a saucepan. Remove and discard the skin of the garlic cloves, then the stem, seeds and skin of the chilli. Add the garlic and chilli flesh to the pan.
  6. Take the barbecued vegetables out of the fridge. Scoop out the flesh of the aubergine, add this to the saucepan.
  7. Remove the skin, stem and seeds of the red pepper. Add the pepper flesh to the saucepan.
  8. Remove the skin of the onion, add the onion flesh to the pan.
  9. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Add the parsley, then whiz, using a hand-held blender, until you get a thick, silky sauce. Add some water if it’s too thick. Set the sauce aside. You can chill it until you’re ready to serve.
  10. Finally, cook the meatballs - either fry them or bake them in the oven until golden all over (if you want to bake them, do this at the same time the tomatoes are roasting).
  11. Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer for about 5-8 minutes, until the sauce is warm again. Taste, then season with salt & pepper to your liking.
  12. Serve with the pasta or rice.