Pike Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

How to make fish mince

1. Why do we make fish meatballs from pike? This fish is available to us thanks to a favorite hobby. As a rule, we cut large fish into pieces of 1-1.2 kg and freeze them. A piece of that weight is enough to feed the family when needed. Pike fillet is firm and has very few bones, which are easy to remove. The head, fins, tail and large bones make an excellent fish soup or fish stock.

2. Fillet the pike: wash a thawed piece thoroughly under running water (it has a lot of slime, but it washes off easily) and pat it dry with a paper towel.

   

   Cut the piece in half lengthwise along the backbone. Remove the spine and all the large rib bones. Trim off the places where the fins were, since there are many small bones and very little meat there. Cut the fillet off the skin with a knife.

   

3. Pass all the meat through a meat grinder with a not-too-coarse plate. The plate has a wonderful property of collecting all the thin bones around the cross-shaped blade, so the mince comes out with no bones at all.

   

4. Fry the onion: peel one onion, or two if you like, and chop it finely. Heat the butter in a frying pan and fry the onion over medium heat until soft and pleasantly golden. Do not overcook the onion, as an aftertaste may remain in the finished dish. Let the onion cool.

   

5. Mix the mince: put it in a bowl, add the cooled fried onion and one egg, so the meatballs do not fall apart while cooking. Pull all the leaves off the herb sprigs and chop them very finely with a knife; you should get 1-1.5 tbsp in total. Add the herbs to the mince, along with a little salt and black pepper and 0.5 tsp of dried aromatic herbs such as oregano, basil, savory, parsley and so on. It is also worth adding some coarsely ground dried hot pepper.

   

   Mix thoroughly so all the components are evenly distributed. Usually, because of the wet fish and the egg, the mince seems a little loose. I always add 1 tbsp of breadcrumbs (8 g), which I make myself right before mixing the mince: there is always a piece of baguette drying in the refrigerator, which I grate and sift. Breadcrumbs bind fish mince very well.

   

How to shape and fry the meatballs

1. Roll the mince into small balls, about the size of a quail egg or slightly bigger. Do this with wet hands, rolling the balls between your palms. It is best to shape all the meatballs at once and place them on a plate moistened with water.

   

   Coat all the meatballs in flour. In principle, you can skip this. But the flour browns a little during frying and forms a sort of crust, which keeps the meatballs from falling apart while simmering or stewing. In addition, some of the flour combines with the sauce or broth and thickens it slightly.

   

2. Heat vegetable oil in a wide, deep frying pan, add the floured fish balls and fry over medium heat until the surface is browned. You can turn them with a fork, and once a crust has formed just stir them with a spatula. Do not overfry them; only light browning is needed.

   You can fry them until done and serve without sauce or broth, which gives you an equivalent of fish cutlets. Although it is believed that meatballs should be cooked in broth, we almost always simmer and stew ours in tomato sauce.

   

How to make the sauce and stew

1. Make the tomato puree: meanwhile, scald the very ripe tomatoes and peel them. Cut the tomatoes into pieces, remove the seeds and the white unripe parts inside. Put the tomato pieces in a blender and blend into a puree. You can add 0.5 cup of water (100 ml) if the puree is thick. Add salt and black pepper to the tomato and, if you like, 1-2 pinches of sugar and aromatic herbs.

   Pour the tomato puree over the fried meatballs. To make the sauce “softer”, I add half a cup of low-fat milk (100 ml). After adding the milk, gently stir the sauce with the fish meatballs.

   

2. Bring the sauce to a boil, cover the pan with a lid and stew the meatballs over low heat for 25-30 mins, until the sauce thickens. The simmer should be gentle, with no bubbling of the sauce. Stir the fish balls in the sauce from time to time, trying not to damage them.

   

Serving

1. Remove the finished meatballs from the heat and divide them among bowls or deep plates. The dish needs no side dish. But if you like, a not-too-thick mashed potato goes perfectly with it. We simply eat the meatballs with fresh bread, topping them with a little sour cream. A pinch of dill and parsley on top is also welcome.

   

   This is a very tasty and filling dish, great for a good lunch. You can make it ahead and reheat it without losing flavor. If you like, you can cook the meatballs in homemade fish soup instead of pieces of good fish. By the way, fish soup can be made from the head and fins at the same time.