Tagliatelle with Meatballs and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Today I’ve got an idea for a delicious lunch. If you like distinct taste, you must try this combination of roasted pepper sauce with meatballs and rice pasta! 🙂

Roast the peppers skin up, and char them

The recipe puts the halved peppers on the tray skin upwards for a reason. Under direct heat the skin blisters and lifts away from the flesh, and once it does the peel comes off in sheets rather than in scraps. Skin down, the flesh cooks but the skin stays welded to it and you end up scraping.

Let them go properly dark. Blackened patches are not burnt pepper, they are where the sugars have caramelised, and they carry most of the smoky flavour the sauce is built on. If the peel still clings after roasting, put the hot halves in a covered bowl for ten minutes – the trapped steam finishes the job on its own.

What keeps these meatballs tender

The recipe calls for turkey drumstick rather than breast, and that choice matters more than any seasoning. Drumstick meat carries more fat and connective tissue, so it stays moist through frying, while breast turns dry and grainy in balls this small. The veal adds a finer texture on top of that.

The other half of it is how you mix. Work the mince only until the egg, flour and seasoning are distributed, then stop. Kneading it like dough links the meat proteins into a tight network and you get bouncy, rubbery balls instead of tender ones. Wet hands make shaping easier without adding more flour.

The rice flour is there in place of breadcrumbs. It binds the egg and meat without gluten, and it keeps the whole dish suitable for anyone who avoids wheat.

Meatballs are worth making in a double batch, because they reheat better than most things and freeze raw. If you want the rest of the week to fall into place around a lunch like this, the app builds the menu and rebuilds the shopping list whenever you swap a meal out.

Rice pasta will not wait for you

Rice tagliatelle behaves differently from wheat pasta. It goes from firm to falling apart in about a minute, and it keeps softening after you drain it, so take it off the heat while it still has a clear bite. Taste it a good two minutes before the packet says it is ready.

Drain it and dress it straight away. Rice pasta left sitting in a colander glues itself into a single lump within a couple of minutes, and no amount of stirring separates it afterwards. Have the sauce hot and waiting before the pasta goes into the water, not the other way round.

Planning lunches that work like this one, with the timing already thought through, is what Diet & Training by Ann does day by day – a full menu in a three or five meal mode, with a gluten free version if you need it.

Preparation

I ground the meat, combined it with the egg, flour, pressed garlic, chopped onion and spices. Then I formed balls and fried them in hot olive oil.

I halved the peppers, removed the seeds and stem and placed them on a baking tray, skin upwards. I roasted them in the oven pre-heated to 200 C until brown and left them to cool. I heated the oil in a pan and fried the garlic. Then I peeled the peppers and sliced them. I added the passata, peppers, salt and black pepper into the pan and stewed it for about 15 minutes.

I served the meatballs with rice pasta and poured the sauce over it. I decorated the dish with fresh basil leaves and sprinkled it with some sesame seeds 🙂

Anna Lewandowska

Tagliatelle with meatballs in roasted red pepper sauce

Turkey and veal meatballs bound with rice flour, served on rice tagliatelle under a sauce of charred red peppers and passata.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 55 minutes mins

Servings: 2 servings

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Calories: 375

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Meatballs

• 150 g turkey drumstick meat
• 50 g veal leg
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon rice flour
• 1/2 garlic clove
• 1/4 onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• dried thyme
• nutmeg

Sauce

• 2 red bell peppers
• 1/2 cup passata
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• sea salt
• black pepper

To serve

• rice tagliatelle
• fresh basil
• sesame seeds

Method

 

1. Grind the meat and combine it with the egg, rice flour, pressed garlic, chopped onion, thyme and nutmeg, mixing only until it comes together.
   
2. Form the mince into balls with wet hands and fry them in hot olive oil.
   
3. Halve the peppers, remove the seeds and stems and place them on a baking tray skin upwards.
   
4. Roast at 200 C until the skins are dark and blistered, then leave them to cool, covered if the peel still clings.
   
5. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the garlic. Peel the roasted peppers and slice them.
   
6. Add the passata, peppers, salt and black pepper to the pan and stew for about 15 minutes.
   
7. Cook the rice tagliatelle a couple of minutes short of the time on the packet and drain it.
   
8. Serve the meatballs on the pasta, pour the sauce over and finish with fresh basil and sesame seeds.
   

Notes

Nutritional values and the number of servings are approximate. The rice tagliatelle is not listed in the ingredient box in the post, so the amount is yours to set. The sauce keeps three days in the fridge and freezes well.

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