Sicilian Fresh Tuna Meatballs with Pasta
These traditional Sicilian fresh tuna meatballs are easy to make and delicious with pasta, potatoes or just bread! Perfect main course for seafood and fish lovers.
Servings: 4
Calories: 670kcal
Ingredients
For the tuna meatballs
- 400 g fresh tuna
- 1 onion (medium size or half a large one) peeled and finely chopped.
- 1 egg
- 3-4 tablespoon breadcrumbs or grated pecorino
- 3-4 fresh mint leaves
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts chopped
- extra virgin olive oil for frying
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest (use an organic lemon)
- all purpose flour to coat tuna meatballs
For tomato sauce
- 500 g tomato passata (puree) or chopped tomatoes (17oz) or 1.5 kg peeled sauce tomatoes (3.5 lbs)
- 10 fresh basil leaves
- 2 garlic cloves peeled
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1-2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Pasta
- 400 g pasta tubes (14oz) or spaghetti. I used genovesone from pastificio dei campi
- salt for cooking water.
Instructions
Make the fresh tuna meatballs
- Peel and finely chop the onion. Wash and chop the mint leaves. Grate the lemon zest. Chop the pine nuts.
Cut the tuna first into slices (if it's one piece) and then into strips. Cut the strips into small pieces and then either mince in a food processor or chop with a knife like chopping parsley.
Once you have cut all the tuna into small pieces, place it in a bowl and knead it a little with the back of a spoon so as to crush it a little more. (This isn't necessary if you used a food processor) Add a little salt to the tuna, plus the chopped onion, chopped pine nuts, mint and the lemon zest.
Mix everything and then add the egg and breadcrumbs (or grated pecorino). Mix again.
Best using your hands. Take a tablespoonful of tuna and work it with your hands into a round ball. Repeat until you have used up all the meatball mixture. The size isn't so important but try to make them all more or less the same for even cooking.
Once all the meatballs are ready, take a frying pan and pour in enough olive oil to cover the bottom and start to heat the oil. Put the flour on a plate, roll the tuna meatballs in the flour and then fry them in the pan with the oil. Turn them so they brown on all sides. They don't need to be cooked through just browned. In this way, the surface of the meatballs will seal and your meatballs will remain soft while cooking in the sauce. When the meatballs are all browned transfer them to drain on some kitchen paper.
Cook the pasta
Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Add salt once it starts to boil and bring to
the boil again. Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the packet.
Make the tomato sauce
While the water is boiling and the pasta is cooking make the sauce. Put a tbsp. of olive oil in a skillet or frying pan, add the two peeled cloves of garlic. Once they start to soften add the peeled tomatoes or passata/polpa.
Dilute the tomato sauce with a cup of pasta cooking water, add the basil leaves and cook for about 5 minutes. (fresh peeled tomatoes make take longer to break down. passata or polpa are ready faster).
At this point, add the tuna meatballs and cook them in the sauce for another 10 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking.
Drain the pasta. Return it to the pan or put it in a warmed bowl. Mix it well with some of the tomato sauce. You want to coat the pasta with sauce. Then plate the pasta and add 2-3 fresh tuna meatballs and more sauce. Serve immediately.
Notes
These tuna meatballs can be made with swordfish instead or a mix of tuna and swordfish. You can use spaghetti or other types of pasta tubes such as penne, short ziti, paccheri or mezze maniche.
To make this recipe gluten free use a gluten free pasta. Many pasta makers produce it nowadays. Plus use gluten free breadcrumbs in the tuna ball ingredients. You could also use ground up oats or crushed gluten free crackers instead of breadcrumbs. Or use grated pecorino instead.
The nutritional info includes pasta.
Nutrition
Calories: 670kcal | Carbohydrates: 95g | Protein: 42g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 79mg | Sodium: 152mg | Potassium: 1124mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 2966IU | Vitamin C: 17mg | Calcium: 86mg | Iron: 5mg