Tender, sweet North African meatballs in a tomato-garlic sauce

Moroccan Meatball Tagine with Green Olives and Lemon

Appears in May-June 2018

1 hour 15 minutes

This tagine is traditionally served with eggs, poached in the flavorful sauce. Serve the tagine directly from the skillet, using a spoon to break the eggs and let the yolks run into the sauce. Offer crusty bread, naan or pita to soak up the sauce.

4

Servings

Tip

Don’t use ground beef less than 90 percent lean or the sauce will be greasy. Also, don't overcook the eggs; the yolks should remain runny so they mix with the sauce.

1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

⅓

cup pimento-stuffed green olives, roughly chopped
2

tablespoons grated lemon zest

Directions

01

In a small bowl, stir together the olives and lemon zest; set aside. In a blender, puree the tomatoes with their juice until smooth, about 30 seconds. Set aside. In a 12-inch skillet over medium, melt the butter. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and pepper flakes, then cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat. Transfer ½ cup of the onion mixture to a large bowl and set aside.

Moroccan Meatball Tagine with Green Olives and Lemon

Reviews

Kristina Kerr W.

My family liked this dish. Good flavors in a one-dish meal. We added extra eggs to that everyone got at least one. The runny yolk mellow the sauce.
Since you puree the tomatoes, I'm not sure why would have to start with whole tomatoes. I would be confident substituting almost any 28 oz. can variety in future. My meatballs did not entirely hold together, so I would add an egg to the that mixture next time. We served with the sourdough bread that we bake constantly these days. Naan would have been better, so I will plan ahead for that next time.

Katie L.

Love it. I didn't to the eggs, but can see how they would cut the sauce. Served with the Naan you find in freezer section. So good.

Diana L.

I made this a few nights ago. My family gave it 3 and half stars. It was just ok. We love Milk Street's Meatballs in spicy tomato sauce -basil meatballs better. With this dish something was not right. Even the next day, they were not any better.

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Moroccan Meatball Tagine with Green Olives and Lemon