I have just been given Niki Segnit's Flavour Thesaurus, and am gradually working my way through it.  There are lots of interesting nuggets.  I like the way she peppers the entries with tasty irrelevances.  On Pork and Beef, p33 she tells us that Vinnie, in Goodfellas, says that for authentic meatballs, three types of meat are needed; beef, veal and pork - "You gotta have pork - that's the flavour".

I often mix meats for meatballs but I've never used these three, partly because if I am just cooking for the two of us, you need such a niggardly quantity of each one, and our butcher's team all, I think, regard our manifestly tiny appetites as pathetic; we often only need one chicken breast between us, for instance.

But I am wandering.  MEATBALLS.  Meatballs have become our casserole of choice recently.  Versatile, tasty and a pleasant texture.  I brown them well in a frying pan and then cook them very slowly, preferably the day before they are wanted.  Here's what I did earlier this week, loosely following Marcella Hazan, Classic Italian Cookbook.

400gms good beef mince
2 tablespoons dried crumbs, soaked in full cream milk
1/2 a large shallot, cut as fine as you can
Chilli flakes
Pepper
Dried oregano
- I didn't use a tablespoon of grated Parmesan, as she suggests, and rather wish I had.  If you do, cut the salt
- I didn't put in an egg either - safer but makes for a denser texture.  Only one MB broke up!

Mix very well, form into balls and fry in 2 - 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  This is where Ms Hazan and I part company

1/2 bottle robust red wine
same quantity of stock (I used a tin of Waitrose beef consomme)
splash anchovy sauce (instead of salt)
1 good heaped teaspoon of plain flour
big pinch of dried thyme
a dozen black peppercorns and twice as many pink
scant teaspoon of fennel seeds
the other 1/2 of the shallot plus a second whole one, sliced
6 good fat cloves of garlic in thin slices
a stick of celery, strings removed and cut into big matchsticks
2 bay leaves
Squirt of (sundried, preferably) tomato paste
1/2 a small tin crushed tomatoes

Once the meatballs have browned, remove them to the casserole that you are going to use, and put in the bay leaves.  Add the sliced shallot to the pan, cook till just beginning to soften, then add the garlic and celery.  2 - 3 minutes on a low heat, stirring, then add the flour.  Cook it for a couple of minutes, add the wine and bring to a rapid boil.  Add the fennel, peppercorns, thyme and anchovy sauce (don't worry - it won't be in the slightest bit fishy, just a deeper richer flavour) and reduce by half.  Add the stock and tinned tomato, reduce with a quick 3 minute boil and pour over the meatballs.  Into an oven at about 120c for 4 hours, or longer and slower if you like.  Degrease with 2 or 3 thicknesses of kitchen towels before serving.