Tefteli is meatballs cooked in a tomato sauce. A tasty Russian recipe that I tested during my last trip. Meatballs that can be made with any kind of meat! Very easy to make, a real treat
Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
½ cup Arborio rice
½ medium yellow onion
1 medium carrot
2 cups San Marzano strained tomatoes
¼ cup heavy cream
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 egg
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Rinse the rice for a few minutes. This will help to remove some starch and prevent the rice from being too sticky. Meatballs will never be dense this way.
In a medium pot bring ½ cup of rice and ½ cup of water to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer covered for 5 minutes.
Remove the rice to a bowl and let it cool down to room temperature. It will be fluffy and just a tiny bit undercooked. Don't worry it will continue to cook inside the meatballs.
Peel, cut and using a food processor purée the onion. The puréed onion instead of just chopped will give us a really nice and juicy meatball consistency.
Then finely shred the carrot and combine it with the onion, rice, meat, garlic, egg, salt, and pepper.
Mix well and using your hands from the meatballs to a size of a golf ball.
Place the meatballs on a hot non-stick skillet with oil and get them nicely browned on all sides and turn off the heat.
In a medium saucepan combine, San Marzano strained tomatoes and cream. Season with salt and pepper and stir well.
Bring it to a nice simmer and add parsley. Turn off the heat and pour the sauce over the meatballs. Simmer covered for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and sprinkle with more chopped parsley.
Serve with your favorite pasta or mashed potatoes.
Spoon over that amazing sauce and enjoy!
