Ingredients
- 300 gr. cooked free-range chicken
- 3 slices of brown bread , crusts removed, plus extra breadcrumbs, if needed
- 50 ml milk
- 1 clove of garlic
- a few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 50 gr. olives
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 large free-range egg
- olive oil
Tomato sugo
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 800 gr. tins of quality chopped tomatoes
- ½ a teaspoon sugar, optional
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
- Using a large knife, roughly chop up the chicken, giving it some texture, then set aside.
- Roughly break up the bread into a bowl and pour over the milk, tossing it together, and set aside until the milk is absorbed.
- Meanwhile, peel the garlic, and pick and finely chop the parsley.
- Put the soaked bread, olives, capers, garlic and Parmesan into a blender and blitz until combined.
- Add the chicken and break in the egg, then pulse very briefly, until the mixture is blended enough to be moulded into balls but is still a little chunky.
- Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper, then roll the mixture into small balls, about 2.5 cm wide
- Place the meatballs in a greased ovenproof dish.
- Drizzle generously with oil and bake in the oven for 30′, turning the balls halfway so they’re golden on all sides.
- While the meatballs are cooking, make your sugo: heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, peel and crush in the garlic and cook for 3′, or until softened but not coloured.
- Tip in the tinned tomatoes, then fill the empty tin a third of the way up with water and add this as well.
- Cook over a high heat for 8 – 10′, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has reduced and thickened.
- If your tomatoes taste slightly acidic, stir in the sugar to sweeten. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the sauce to the dish 5 – 10′ before the meatballs have finished cooking.