Meatballs 101

Submitted by CHEF GRPA

"Meatballs made with ground beef, veal and pork, with garlic and Romano cheese. Finish cooking in your favorite marinara sauce. When I take these to parties, I always get requests for the recipe."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1⁄2 lb ground veal
• 1⁄2 lb ground pork
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup freshly grated romano cheese
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
• salt & fresh ground pepper
• 2 cups stale Italian bread, crumbled
• 1 1⁄2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 cup olive oil

directions

1. 1. Combine beef, veal, and pork in a large bowl. Add garlic, eggs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper.
2. 2. Blend bread crumbs into meat mixture. Slowly add the water 1/2 cup at a time. The mixture should be very moist but still hold its shape if rolled into meatballs. (I usually use about 1 1/4 cups of water). Shape into meatballs.
3. 3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Fry meatballs in batches. When the meatball is very brown and slightly crisp remove from the heat and drain on a paper towel. (If your mixture is too wet, cover the meatballs while they are cooking so that they hold their shape better.).
4. My Note: I use all beef most of the time. I don't fry, b/c I am too impatient, and the meatballs break up more that way. I scoop them out with a spoon, roll them in my hands, and bake on a cake rack in the oven over a foil-lined cookie sheet. This way, they brown nicely, excess fat is drained off, and they can go right into sauce, or, in our family, meatball hoagies, along with sauteed onions and peppers. They also freeze very well when baked this way.
5. funny! 3 meats, the breadcrumbs, plus 1 egg. You can also use fresh chopped spinach instead of parsley (or 1 pkg frozen, thawed and all water squeezed out) and pecorino romano cheese instead of parmesan. I make sure I have these on hand almost all the time, I use one lb of EACH meat, and it makes 30-40. Instead of frying, I par bake mine on a cookie sheet at 325 for about 10 minutes, then set the tray (if room allows) into the freezer for an hour or so. Pop them off the tray, into a couple of large freezer bags. Meatballs on demand! Drop them into a sauce or steam in a glass casserole dish for about 5 minutes, they will be medium-well on the inside. Absolute crowd pleaser if you are making a big Italian dinner!
6. Sometime I used at meatloaf mix (beef/pork/veal), and added 2 TBSP of parmesan cheese and 2 tsp crushed garlic for extra flavor. Baked them according to the recipe then put them in a pot of sauce to simmer for a couple hours.