Pheasant meatballs with green olives, sun-dried tomatoes, herbs & tagliatelle pasta You can use any minced pheasant for this dish, thigh or breast meat. The small amount of pork belly and the soaked bread will add moisture and give the meat balls a lighter texture. In the middle of the meat balls, an olive is placed to give a little surprise as you bite into it. Tagliatelle is a sort of thick flat pasta strip that is easily available in supermarkets but you could do this recipe with any other pasta. Serves 4 Ingredients 3 slices of white bread 125ml milk 50ml olive oil (for sauce) ½ onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 100ml game or chicken stock 120g sun-dried tomatoes 700ml tomato passata 450g pheasant, minced 120g pork belly, minced (or bacon, minced) salt and pepper 90g green anchovy olives 200g fresh tagliatelle pasta 25ml virgin olive oil (for pasta) 2 tsp roughly chopped basil 25g grated parmesan METHOD Take the bread and remove the crusts then place in a bowl and pour on the milk. Allow the bread to soak up the milk. Heat a little oil in a saucepan then add onion and garlic. Sweat and cook without colour until soft.

Add stock and reduce by half. Now add sun-dried tomatoes and passata then bring to boil and allow to simmer for 20 mins. Place minced pheasant and pork in a bowl with the bread that by now will have absorbed all the milk. Season and mix the meat well, take a small ball of meat, flatten and pan fry then taste to check the seasoning is correct. Divide the meat into equal-sized balls of about 40g each, wet your hands very slightly: this will help you roll smooth balls. Take an olive and push it into the centre of the ball of meat the, roll round again. Allow 4 or 5 balls per portion, depending on size. In a non-sick pan, heat a little oil and pan fry the balls to give them a light colour then once all have been pan fried, drop them into the tomato sauce and allow to simmer for 10 mins.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and bring back to boil to cook the pasta for 8 mins or until cooked. Then drain the pasta, toss in some virgin olive oil and season. To serve, place the pasta onto the plate with the meat balls on top and a good helping of sauce then garnish with chopped basil and parmesan cheese.