Italian meatball melts


I used my burger press for the second time ever the other night. The original recipe was 'Italian meatball melts' from Olive magazine. Instead of making meatballs, I made the meat into burgers and only used steak mince. The recipe says to use pork and beef for juicier meatballs, and I would be inclined to agree. Like the meatballs I made previously I did find them a little dry just using beef. I didn't bother to make the tomato sauce as I knew my two kids would smother them with tomato ketchup anyway. Now reading the recipe again I think the sauce would have added flavour and moistness.

Ingredients 
Serves 2
300g minced beef and pork (I think this means the total amount of both)
½ a small onion grated
½ clove of garlic crushed
1 tbsp of parmesan
a pinch of chilli flakes
2 tbsp chopped basil, plus leaves to serve
2 halved and toasted ciabatta rolls
mozzarella or other cheese to serve
2 handfuls of rocket to serve
TOMATO SAUCE
½ a garlic clove sliced
olive oil
200g tin of chopped tomatoes
a pinch of chilli flakes
1 tsp of sugar

Method
Put the first five ingredients in a bowl, season really heavily and mix together with your hands. Form into 8 meatballs, or burgers. Fry in a large pan until browned all over.
To make the sauce sizzle the sliced garlic in a little olive oil then tip in the tomatoes, chillies and sugar. Simmer until thickened.
Stir the meatballs in the sauce with the chopped basil and simmer for 10 minutes. To serve pile rocket and meaballs into the ciabatta bottoms and top with a layer of grated mozzarella. Flash under the grill to melt the cheese then add a few more basil leaves, put the tops on then serve.

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