My big fat Greek meatballs

My big fat Greek meatballs - via Fiona Murray

3 thick slices white bread
150 ml red wine
500 g minced lamb or beef or combination thereof
1 onion, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 beaten egg
1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
sea salt and pepper
50 g plain flour
olive oil for frying
500 ml tomato passata
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 Tbsp. tomato sauce
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. sugar
1 bay leaf

Remove the crusts from the bread, roughly tear into pieces and soak in the red wine. Squeeze lightly, reserving the wine. Using your hands, combine the soaked bread with the minced meat, onion, one of the curshed garlic cloves, the egg, parsley, cumin, cinnamon, sea salt and pepper and mix well, squishing it all together. Leave the mixture to stand in the fridge for an hour. Form into generously sized balls and roll in the plain flour, shaking off any excess.

Heat a little olive oil in a non-stick pan and fry the meatballs until they are nicely browned all over. In the meantime, combine the reserved red wine with the tomato passata, paste, tomato sauce, olive oil, remaining garlic clove, sugar, and bay leaf in a saucepan, and simmer for 20 minutes until thickened. Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Serve with rice.