Pork Meatballs with a Lemon Thyme Sauce ft Zoodles

There has been a serious lack of recipe sharing/blogging in my life recently... But that does not come with a lack of cooking! I don't like sharing photos of my food if they don't look perfect... even if they taste delicious! But I am in no way a food photographer so I think I have to get over that. Plus tonights dinner was delicious. I have a few other photos from dinners I've cooked up recently that I'll likely share in the coming week as well. My sister and I have decided, since I recently moved two blocks away from her, that we will now cook together once a week! So this should be exciting. 

Tonight the main star of the show was Pork Meatballs with a Lemon Thyme Sauce. They were incredibly flavourful. I recently got a Spiralizer for my birthday which turns vegetables into "noodles" so I made some zoodles to go with it. It was super delicious and very light! I stuck very close to the meatball recipe, but with some adjustments/method changes. 

This recipe serves 4. 

Meatballs:

1/2 cup milk1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, diced
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground pork
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves (or 4 teaspoons of ground sage)
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper & Salt (about 1/2 tsp of each)


Lemon Thyme Sauce:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth 
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (from one lemon) 
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Lemon Zest to garnish

Put the milk and breadcrumbs in a small bowl and mix with a fork. When the crumbs have softened (approximately 2-4 minutes) squeeze out the milk and discard it. I scooped it into a strainer with very small holes to do this. 

While the breadcrumbs are soaking, gently sauté the onion on low-medium heat in a little olive oil until it is soft but not colored. After the first couple of minutes, add the diced garlic and continue to sauté. Set it aside to cool. Make sure they're very finely diced. I didn't pay very much attention and regularly diced mine and there was a lot of onion I had to take out while making my meatballs cause they were sticking out of them.

Combine in a medium bowl the (drained) breadcrumbs, cooled onion, egg, Parmesan, sage, thyme, cayenne, black pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix ingredients together and then add the ground pork. Mix with hands. You don't want to over mix once the pork has been added or it will turn pasty. That is no good. 

Shape the mixture into walnut-sized balls. This can be done several hours  ahead or right before! 

To cook, heat a skillet large enough to hold all the meatballs in one uncrowded layer. Add a little olive oil. When the skillet is heated, add the meatballs, shaking the pan to keep them from sticking. Using tongs to turn so they brown evenly, cook the meatballs until they are no longer pink in the centre and lightly browned on all sides. Remove from the pan to a plate and immediately make the sauce.

Deglaze the pan over medium heat with the chicken broth and wine. Simmer until reduced by at least a third. Add the lemon juice and thyme, then add the meatballs back in again as well. After about 5 minutes, this is when I added the zoodles and tossed them around in the sauce as we were ready to eat right away. The sauce should simmer for a total of at least 10 minutes, but up to half an hour, depending on when you're ready to eat. Serve meatballs and zoodles with the sauce poured over and garnished with lemon zest curls.