Fish Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (Pike or Cod) - Step-by-Step Recipe
How to make fish patties is something everybody knows. Meatballs are not much harder. Made from minced meat or fish, they often contain fresh herbs, plenty of spices and, sometimes, soaked bread or breadcrumbs.
A meatball is roughly the size of a walnut, though sometimes bigger. Meatballs are supposed to be served with a sauce rather than in it, but that is more of a historical tradition than how things are actually done. And, of course, meatballs are considerably smaller than patties.
Ukrainian cuisine has a very popular dish called sichenyky: small patties or balls of finely chopped meat, fish or vegetables (the name comes from the word for “chopped”). Sichenyky are fried and then braised in a sauce. With fish dishes a sauce is, as a rule, a must. Cod, for example, turns out dry without one.
Small balls of minced fish or meat exist in the national cuisines of most peoples of the world. One of Sweden's main national dishes, for instance, is Swedish meatballs.
Besides meat or fish, the mince for meatballs may include fillers: rice, soaked bread, breadcrumbs and onion, as well as spices and eggs. Meatballs are most often braised in a sauce, but they can also be fried, baked or steamed.
Fish meatballs braised in sauce can be made from practically any fish. Pike, zander, cod and redfish are all excellent, and even a fairly bony river fish such as bream will do.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Fish fillet (pike, cod) 300 g
- Garlic 2 cloves
- Egg 1
- Fresh parsley 5-6 sprigs
- Olive oil 3 tbsp
- Breadcrumbs, flour, tomato paste or tomato juice to taste
- Salt, ground black pepper, dried Mediterranean herbs to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Either way, meatballs and other dishes like them start with the mince, or forcemeat (from the Latin farcio, “I stuff”). Mince the fish fillet with a meat grinder or a knife, add the spices, herbs and other ingredients, and shape the fish meatballs.
- Practically any lean fish fillet works for fish meatballs, whether you buy it or catch the fish yourself.
- Start with the parsley. Pick all the leaves off the stems and chop them very finely with a knife. Discard the tough stems. Peel the garlic. Separate the yolk of one egg into a cup: the yolk is all you need.
- Clean the fish fillet of bones as thoroughly as you can and cut off the skin. There is no need to hunt for every small bone: the meat grinder will trap them in front of the plate, which is an entirely welcome and extremely useful effect.
- Put the fish fillet through the meat grinder, better still twice.
- In a deep bowl, combine the minced fish and the chopped herbs, add one egg yolk, season with salt and pepper, and add a mix of dried Mediterranean herbs (savory, oregano, basil).
- Mix the mince thoroughly. Then, to make it a little firmer, keep working it while adding breadcrumbs in small portions (1 tsp at a time). You usually need 1 tbsp, 1.5 tbsp at most. What matters is that the fish meatballs hold their shape and do not fall apart in the pan.
- When the mince is ready, wet a cutting board with water and, with wet hands, shape round balls. They should be the size of a walnut, and not the largest one. Lay the shaped fish meatballs out on a board or a plate.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a deep frying pan. Dust the fish meatballs with flour and place them in the hot oil.
- Once the fish meatballs have browned, you do not have to turn them one by one; just stir them with a spatula, the way you would when frying potatoes.
- There is no need to cook them through: 5-6 mins of frying is enough.
- The sauce for the meatballs can be anything you like. We prefer a homemade tomato sauce. Mix about 1 cup of canned tomato pulp with 0.5 tsp of sugar and a pinch of salt, season with pepper and add a pinch of aromatic herbs. Blend everything to the consistency of tomato juice and pour it over the browned fish meatballs. Straight away add a quarter cup of milk or cream and about two cups of hot water.
- Next, bring the sauce with the meatballs to a boil and simmer, covered, over low heat for 15 mins.
- If the sauce is too thin, simply take off the lid and let the excess liquid boil away, which usually takes 5-10 mins.
- Arrange the finished fish meatballs on plates and spoon the sauce over them. They go wonderfully with mashed potatoes.
| Yield: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 145 |
| Prep: | 20 mins |
| Cook: | 25 mins |
| Ready in: | 45 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.7
(9)
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