Keeping in tuna

I'm really enjoying Delicious magazine's light food sections at the moment.  Whilst I love the rich decadent recipes in food magazines, I often prefer to cook lighter dinners, especially on weeknights.  Last night Narelle came over for one of our midweek dinner catch ups and I made the following recipe which is adapted from the May 2010 edition of Delicious and which we both agreed was a really nice light meal.

Tuna Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

The Delicious recipe calls for raisins in the sauce but I left them out as I don't really like raisins in savoury dishes.  I made a two thirds batch to serve 2 people. 

1 thick slice of day old sourdough or ciabatta, crusts removed, torn into small pieces
150ml milk (I used rice milk)
500g tuna fillets, trimmed and cut into 5mm cubes
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons grated pecorino or parmesan
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 

2. Soak the bread in the milk for five minutes, then lift out and squeeze it to remove the excess liquid.  Discard the milk and place the bread, tuna, herbs, cheese, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Mix with your hands until well combined (I recommend wearing food preparation gloves for this bit).  Add the egg and mix well, then form into 12 meatballs.  Place on an oiled baking tray, brush or spray with oil, then bake for 15 minutes until firm and lightly golden on the bottom.

3. For the sauce, add the oil and garlic to a pan and heat until the garlic is fragrant.  Add the tomatoes, parsley, sugar, salt and pepper,  bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes until it has reduced slightly.

4. Add the meatballs (browned side up) and simmer for a few minutes until warmed through (you don't want them to start falling apart though).  Divide among 3 to 4 bowls, scatter with pine nuts, and serve.