Meatball-Potato Casserole

(Firinda Kofte Patates)

Kofte Ingredients:
~450 g (1 pound) medium ground beef
1 slice of Turkish bread (French or Italian), soak into the milk,
squeeze out excess milk
1 egg
1 small onion, grated
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
Salt
Pepper

Tomato Sauce:
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 cup diced tomato, canned
Salt
Pepper

1/4 cup sunflower oil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 medium sized yellow potato, peeled, sliced in round shape
2-3 cubanelle pepper, each sliced in 2 or 3
1-2 tomato, sliced in round shape

Kneed all the kofte ingredients. Dust the both sides with flour. Heat up sunflower oil in a pan. Fry both sides 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Put them on paper towel to soak extra oil.

Oil the bake dish with 2 tbsp olive oil. Place potatoes on it. Arrange fried koftes on the potatoes. Place tomato slices and cubanelle peppers on koftes.

In the meantime, prepare tomato sauce; Saute the onion with olive oil for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, when the smell comes out add the tomato, salt and pepper. Cook for about 2 more minutes then pour the sauce all over the koftes.

Preheat the oven 375 F (180 C). Cook for about 35-40 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender. Serve Kofte in Tomato Sauce with Turkish yogurt and bread.

3-4 servings.