Foodista | Recipes, Cooking Tips, and Food News | Rice Balls with Spinach & Red Sauce with Fennel!!!

Ingredients

• For Rice Balls:
• 1 ¼ lb. ground beef
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach
• ½ cup grated Romano cheese
• 1 cup fresh or Italian style bread crumbs
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 4 eggs – beaten
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
• Dashes of sea salt
• Dashes of fresh ground black pepper
• Dashes of red pepper flakes
• Vegetable oil – for frying
• For the Sauce:
• 1 – 29 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
• 4 cloves of garlic – chopped
• 3 tablespoons – raisins
• 2 stalks celery – chopped
• ¼ head of fresh fennel – chopped
• ¼ lemon – plus the juice squeezed
• ½ cup sliced marinated sweet peppers – plus 3 tablespoons marinade
• Pinch of sugar
• Olive oil – for drizzling
• Fresh grated Romano cheese