Light, tender beef & ricotta meatballs topped with a punchy green salsa verde and served on tender roast vegetables. Jump to Recipe
Contrary to the impression my instagram might give, I’m not constantly indulging in rich brownies, multi-layer cakes, flaky fruit pies and freshly baked chocolate chunk cookies (okay, I admit the latter happened yesterday). I wish. Though it is my favourite part of what I do, at the moment I’m lucky if I manage to bake once every couple of weeks. It’s a balance thing. Balancing hospital hours, exam study and time in the kitchen was always going to be a juggle, and it currently tips in favour of my desk. Waaaah.
A small part of my brain would also say it’s balance in terms of health, but my sweet tooth overpowers that logic 99% of the time. Cookies are food for the soul, and don’t ever forget it.
Anyway, in the midst of all these hours clutching pen & paper (actually, mainly staring at laptop screen), the only mandatory kitchen time is constructing dinner. I don’t and will never resort to tuna on toast and two minute noodles, even on long days. I do have a lengthy and rapidly expanding list of recipes to try (points for speed and useful leftovers), or I get creative with the random bits and pieces filling the fridge at the end of the week. Random herb pesto stirred through pasta, zucchini, frozen peas, that bit of yesterday’s roast pumpkin and a poached egg, anyone? Most of the time these adventures don’t make it to instagram – yellow lit kitchen evenings surrounded by the awful 70’s tiling in our sharehouse isn’t really the aesthetic I’m going for, ha.
The point is that social media is only ever going to be a careful curated snippet of our lives, not the day to day grind. Intellectually I know that, but it’s still something I need to continually remind myself of whenever I’m bored studying and get envious of what seems like everyone else’s fun life – their travel, or baking, or workshops. The findings recently that Instagram is detrimental to mental health doesn’t surprise me in the least. And I’m not saying that I don’t like instagram – I love it for the community and real-life friends I’ve made, the inspiration, the travel tips and hidden spots. It’s just about not getting envious (*trying not to), or worrying about superficial likes and followers. And it goes for my own instagram as well – unless you think I should start posting photos of my daily coffee, pages of notes and reheated leftovers?
These beef & ricotta meatballs with salsa verde and roast vegetables are much more typical of my regular cooking. The meatballs are light, moist and fluffy thanks to ricotta and eggs, and are baked in the oven for ease and minimal clean up. Salsa verde packs a punch of flavour – it’s basically a pesto with additional capers, anchovies, spinach and parsley, and you can tweak it to suit your taste. Instead of serving them over pasta, I roast a big tray of whatever vegetables are cheap and seasonal – in this case, butternut squash, carrots, beetroot, brussel sprouts and cauliflower. In summer, you could try more of a ratatouille style sauce with tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum and zucchini. Enjoy!
Light, moist beef & ricotta meatballs topped with a punchy green salsa verde and served on tender roast vegetables. Very adaptable depending on the season and what you have available, and easy to vary the herbs and nuts in the salsa verde as well. Serves 4.
- A mix of whatever vegetables are in season and that you have on hand - I used butternut squash , carrots, beetroot, zucchini, shallots, brussel sprouts and cauliflower. In summer, you could try more of a ratatouille style sauce with tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum and zucchini. Switch it up!
- a few tablespoons Olive oil
- a few sprigs fresh rosemary and thyme
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon liquid honey (for carrots and beetroot)
- 1 tablespoon balsamic (for carrots and beetroot)
- 2 packed cups baby spinach
- 1 packed cup basil
- 1 packed cup parsley
- 1/3 cup pinenuts or almonds
- 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan
- 1 clove of garlic
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2-3 anchovies
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- ± cold water to thin out to a creamy , saucey consistency
- 500 g beef
- 1 onion
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 200 g stale white bread, crusts removed
- 1/4 cup milk
- 200 g ricotta
- 2 eggs , lightly beaten
- salt and pepper
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Preheat the oven to 220°C and line a baking tray or two with baking paper.
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Cut your vegetables up into chunks that should cook at a similar rate. Try to divide them based on cooking time so that if you have to pull some out early you can do that easily - for example, I put my beetroot, carrots, cauliflower and squash together, then on another tray had brussel sprouts and zucchini as they cook much faster.
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Toss with a decent glug of olive oil, fresh rosemary and thyme, and salt and pepper and spread out in a single layer on your baking tray(s). If using carrots and beetroot, drizzle a tablespoon or so over liquid honey and balsamic vinegar over them.
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Roast for 30 min - 50 min depending on the vegetables - until tender and cooked to your liking.
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In a food processor, combine all ingredients and blitz until fully combined. If needed, add a splash of water to achieve a creamy, saucey consistency.
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Taste and adjust for seasoning. If you find it too strong, add a bit more parmesan and pinenuts.
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In a bowl, combine the beef, onion and thyme with your hand or a wooden spoon
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Separately, grate or tear the white bread to form crumbs and stir in the milk to soak (there won’t seem like there is much milk, but this is ok).
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Add the bread to the mince mixture along with the ricotta and eggs and mix to just combine.
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Using your hands, form the mixture into balls. Refrigerate until ready to cook.
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To cook the meatballs, place on an oiled baking dish and cook at 220°C until browned and cooked through (about 20-25 minutes)
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To serve, top warm roast vegetables with meatballs and spoon over the salsa verde. Top with grated parmesan (I forgot in the photos!) and serve with crusty warm bread
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First, this looks pretty amazing, and really perfect for my lifestyle right now. Second, you’re so spot on about social media. It really is a carefully curated feed and I doubt anyone’s feed is truly representative of their life. I try to tell myself that too when I take a week break from IG and then realizes I’ve lost 100 followers, or when I see my full-time-blogging friends go on an awesome press trip I had to turn down (that hurt lol), or just when I see people constantly creating new content, and I have like, 0 new things except weddings?! that I don’t post on my food IG. Where did you find that IG was detrimental to mental health? I actually 100% believe that, as I’ve definitely seen my anxiety get exacerbated with the blog/social media stuff. I’d love to read the study if you found one!
Ah I am SO freaking behind on this blog but finally getting around to replying…
With human nature I’m not sure it even IS possible for anyone’s feed to really represent their life – I mean, we all want to be liked, and we all want to show our best selves off, and I think that inevitably results in the gorgeously curated pictures we see everyday – though it is one of the reasons I really like having instagram stories! This is the link to the report https://www.rsph.org.uk/asset/AAFB7DC1-35CE-4097-B26321C1667B5333.2D2662B7-A714-4ACB-A94A63BA544A8267/ -mainly of youth mental health but tbh I think it holds true for all of us, especially when part of our work is wrapped up in social media! Hope you are well xxx
Ugh! I’m with you when it comes to social media. If it wasn’t intergal to my line of work I would delete it from my life. Its so damaging playing my life is better than yours game even if half of it is fake. Anways! This recipe looks beyond amazing and so perfect for the autumn days ahead.
I’m with you there – I can’t imagine having a solely personal instagram (if I didn’t have a blog). Draining! Thanks Nicole! x
I’m literally sitting at my computer writing emails eating reheated mac and cheese from a Tupperware right now. Haha. I took a small break to make pie but the rest of the day has been all emails from entitled people who wonder why I don’t reply in 30 seconds. I took a break from things while we were away recently camping etc and found it really hard to get back into Instagram etc – it was so nice to not be checking up on things and just do what I was doing. I’m a shocker at comparing myself to others to the point I convince myself what I’m doing is wrong, so I totally feel you on this! I love your coffees on your stories hahaha I get so insanely jealous!
These look so, so good! Rich reckons he doesn’t like meatballs but I’m going to make these anyway. Xx
Ah glad it’s not just me! And here I am staring at your gorgeous pies and baked treats getting envious..
The unofficial week of tech detox we had in Cuba (no internet, so what can you do?!) was actually incredible – besides taking photos, I had no other use for my phone and I kinda loved it. Might do another week this summer actually… anyway, hope you guys are well and surviving NYC winter!! xx
This meal looks beautiful and so full of good things! Totally relate to you about social media. I suppose we need to look at IG like watching a romatic comedy. lol. take it with a pinch of salt or simply enter a simulated world for a while. I think inspite of all your engagements you manage really well. I am 100% sure that if I had your schedule i’d be eating takeout or frozen packed food everyday 🙁
oh thank you so much Jenny! I guess food is always a priority for me haha, but I am SO glad to finally be on summer holidays and take things a little slower for a while. Hope you are well x
ugh, IG is such a double edged sword. i love it for the inspiration it can bring, but it’s also responsible for mad FOMO. everybody’s living such glamorous lives all the time, apparently! lol.
so so glam. but I do LOVE seeing your recipe testing (and postman?) adventures at the moment!!
You meal prep is so inspiring! I love that you’ve made these simple elements that can be combined in so many ways. And, ugh, yes to those IG thoughts. The feeling of needing to keep up with it all is overwhelming. I might be in the minority, but I’d love to see some real life snaps on your feed!
This looks so beautiful! I am obsessed with salsa verde – it’s one of my favourite things. Mouthwatering photos as always! <3
I know exactly what you mean! I feel bad when what I post on Instagram doesn’t really reflect what I’m eating at the moment, but yeah, that yellow kitchen light just kills any yum vibes no matter how tasty something is. Plus I’m too busy actually eating to post. The last thing I want to do while eating is be attached to my phone. I’m really enjoying stories for helping me feel like I can post a more accurate picture of my food realities.
Omg all these veggies. Totally swooning!!
It’s so true – instagram is only a pocket of the real truth of our daily lives. I would be embarrassed for anyone to see boxes that I’m still unpacking, dirty clothes, or toys in various areas of my house. But alas, that is reality. This looks like the perfect meal for autumn – warm and hearty. I shall pretend it is fall here in LA while I keep cool from the 90F weather.
Wow! What a perfect idea to enjoy delicious meatballs with healthy veggies! It looks wonderful and I love preparing this and it was worked great! Thanks for sharing the recipe!