Lamb meat-balls with tomato, roast peppers and herby dip

I was experimenting with flavours last week, for once trying to prepare a dish that would match a wine, rather than the other way around. The wine in question was a St Emilion Grand Cru, one of the wines that we are working with our wine importing partners to market and showcase. I decided that lamb would work well, with a tomato and herb-based dip to go with some lamb meatballs. Due to the higher fat content in lamb, I thought it would work better to reheat than beef meatballs, and I wanted to play with the tastes in the dip to match. I roasted some red and yellow peppers in the oven - 20 minutes max, and then didnt even try and remove the skin afterwards. In the meantime, I chopped up a large clove of garlic, and softened it in some warm olive oil. I then hunted in the garden for some herbs and found some thyme, oregano and mint - mostly mint! I added this to the olive oil and garlic mix. I then blitzed the peppers and herb mix in the food processor and put them back onto the heat once they were fairly well blitzed. I then added about 200ml of tomato passata and about a glass of red wine and a generous squeeze of lemon juice (you have to taste it at this stage to know how much lemon juice to add, as it all depends on the sweetness of the peppers and the style of red wine. Finally, I seasoned it fairly generously with salt and black pepper. For the lamb meatballs: Cook off finely chopped onion (about half a small onion for a kilo of lamb mince and garlic - and some chilli if you are so inclined!. Then when that has cooled, add into lamb mince, salt and pepper - you can then form either small meatballs or larger kofti shaped ones - or even burger size if you want... Fry them in olive oil until browned and then finish off in the oven - 5 minutes for the smaller ones, up to 10 if you have burger size. As this dish went down so well, I will have to do it again, paying more attention to the quantities, and publish it on the website as a proper recipe... And it worked really well with the St Emilion - great dish for a supper party as it reheats wonderfully well...