Beautiful meatballs with cheese from the oven

Tear the ciabatta into pieces and cut into bread crumb in a food processor.

Chop the onion. Slice the celery. Slice the garlic.

Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Put a dash of olive oil, onion, celery and garlic in the pan.

Split the egg.

Put the minced meat, egg yolks, oregano and bread crumbs in a mixing bowl and grate the yellow skin of the lemon above.

Add the nutmeg with a large pinch of pepper and salt. Mix everything well with your hands.

Wet your hands slightly and then divide the mixture into 4 equal parts. Roll balls of it. Each ball will be about the size of a golf ball.

Place the balls on a dish, cover with cling film and put in the refrigerator until use.

Preheat the oven to 200 ºC.

Remove the lid from the pan and bake for another 5 minutes or until the vegetables start to turn golden brown. Add the tomato pieces.

Pour the water into the pan. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and bring it to the boil.

Cook gently for 15 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

In the meantime, heat a large frying pan over a high heat. Put the olive oil in the pan and fry the meatballs for 5 minutes until they are golden brown all around.

Spoon the tomato sauce in a large oven dish and spread out in an even layer. Divide the meatballs over the sauce.

Halve the cherry tomatoes and squeeze out the seeds.

Spoon the cherry tomatoes with salt and pepper and a dash of oil. Divide them over the baking dish.

Wrap a piece of mozzarella in a basil leaf and place it between 2 meatballs in the oven dish. Repeat until all mozzarella is gone.

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the meatballs and bake for about 30 minutes, or until tender and golden brown and the sauce bubbles.