Meatballs
Updated: Oct 3
Meatballs are an Italian staple and the recipe that I grew up with made my mom a celebrity among anyone she shared them with.
My Nana used to make mass quantities and reserve some of the meat for the cocktail size meatballs every time she made them.
She would also set some of the meat mixture aside so she could add raisins to them. You heard me, raisins. My Mom hated them but my dad loved them. So that no one would accidentally get a meatball with raisins when they didn't want one, Nana would shape the raisin ones more like an egg than a ball. She never did tell me why or where the raisin idea came from, but some on-line research explained that the raisins are a Sicilian thing — which explains why she didn’t explain — no respectable mainland Italian would go out of their way to make a Sicilian (my dad) happy. Thanks, Nana, I love them with raisins too!
THE RECIPE
Ground meat: beef, pork, veal or any combination thereof.
(NEVER, NEVER use ground chicken, turkey, or any fake meat. The Italian Cooking God will see that you rot in hell. Plus it will taste totally gross.)
Stale Italian bread
Milk
Eggs
Grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Oregano
Salt Pepper
Olive Oil
Bread crumbs
Raisins (maybe)
Sorry, this is one of those wing the amount recipes.
First the method:
Soak the stale bread in some milk to soften.
Place the ground meat in a large bowl and add all dried spices, the grated cheese, and the raw egg.
Take the bread from the milk and press as much of the milk out as possible.
Add the wet bread to the meat mixture and mix with your hands until all the ingredients are well combined.
As far as proportion of ingredients, I’ll do my best for one pound of ground meat::
I use a cup of the bread packed after it’s soaked
1/2 to 3/4 c of grated cheese depending on which variety. Romano is stronger so I use less and Parmesan is milder so I use more.
I use one medium egg
As far as the spices, I honestly don’t measure any. I just keep sniffing until it smells right.
I keep bread crumbs on hand in case the meat is too soft and wet to make
the balls. I add bread crumbs to firm it up. The fat content of he meat plays a big part in the recipe proportions. Fattier meat (my preference) tends to hold together better and has more flavor. Plus it provides more drippings for the gravy.
Once the meat feels right, I make the meatballs into 2-1/2" balls. (Usually about a dozen for 1 lb of meat). If you decide to make some with raisins, remember to shape them a bit different.
If you’re making them just to have on hand and not as part of your gravy, put some olive oil in a large skillet and brown and simmer them until cooked through. You can also put them in a 9X13 baking pan and bake at 350 to 375º until they’re cooked through. Make sure to turn them a couple of time so they brown evenly. A little olive oil in the pan is a good idea too. You can use this same recipe for cocktail meatballs. Just make them 1” and cook through in a frying pan or on a cookie sheet with sides in the oven.
If you’re using them for gravy, brown and cook them through for an hour in the boiling gravy and then remove them to a baking dish to be reheated and served on the side with your pasta entree. If you leave them in the gravy for the entire time, they seem to absorb too much gravy.
If you make meatballs for anything other than gravy, there is no shame in saving the pan drippings in a jar to add to your next batch of gravy. It keeps really well in the fridge. Now that I’m thinking about it, there was always a jar with a collection of drippings suitable for gravy making. But remember, no poultry — just red meat.
I like to make a couple of pounds of ground meet and make half into full sized meatballs and half into cocktail sized. I keep them brown and then freeze them for use later. The little ones can go into soup or be used as an appetizer, and the regular sized ones can be tossed with gravy and served with a pasta meal or made into meatball sandwiches. I also save the drippings for my next pot of gravy.
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