In the early days of dating Eric, his mother loved to tell stories about her family’s meatballs. How her grandparents had a little Italian restaurant in upstate New York and, after school, she would walk down to the basement kitchen and scoop a couple out of the bubbling sauce for a snack. One day, enamored by these dreamy tales of juicy little meaty treats, I naïvely, asked for the recipe.
“Oh I’m sorry darling, but that’s only passed down through the women in our family.”
Bummer- I guess I’ll have to figure out my own version!
Fast forward a few years to a day close to our wedding and I ask her again:
“Hey Jacci, now that I’ll be part of the family, do you think I can get that meatball recipe?”
“Hahahaha. Very funny dear”.
So I guess that’s still a ‘No’!
A few weeks after the wedding, we received a package from Nana, (Jacci’s mother). It was a shiny red hand crank pasta press and a handwritten card with the family meatball recipe. God bless grandmothers!
Needless to say, unless I marry all of you- which would certainly raise a few felonies- I’ll just stick to my version of “The” meatballs here.
MEATBALLS
Yield:
24-48 depending on the size (48 for 1 oz., 24 for 2 oz, etc…)
Time:
10-15 minutes hands-on, 30-45 minutes oven & stove-top time
Cliffs Notes:
Start the Sauce; Pre-heat to 375 F Convection; Mix meatball ingredients together; Shape into balls; Bake 10-15 minutes until browned; Finish the sauce; Finish cooking meatballs in the sauce; Eat.
INGREDIENTS
- 1# Ground Beef
- 1# Uncooked Spicy Italian Sausage (Bulk, not in casings, is easiest)
- 1# Uncooked Sweet Italian Sausage (Bulk, not in casings, is easiest)
- 1 egg
- 1/4 c Breadcrumbs (Or Gluten Free Panko/ breadcrumbs)
- 1/2 bunch Parsley, washed and roughly chopped
- 1/4 c freshly Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- To taste, Salt and freshly grated Black Pepper
METHOD
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and mix thoroughly with your hands
- Cook-off a small piece to taste for seasoning, if you want, and adjust seasoning as needed
- Grab a sheet pan and an ice cream scoop of the desired size for your meatballs
- Scoop the meatball mixture onto the sheet pan and, once done, go back and roll each one between your two palms to round them out. Return them to the sheet pan, with a little spacing in between each one so the air can flow freely around them
- Sprinkle with some salt and pepper and place in the oven
- Set a timer for 10 minutes and check-in on them. As every oven and altitude is different, I always like to set a timer as the “check-on-the-thing” time and then adjust the timing as needed. You’ll know they’re done once the surface is a juicy golden brown and they’ve shrunken a bit in size. They do not need to be fully cooked, as they will finish cooking in the sauce
- At this point, you can scoop them off the sheet pan and directly into the sauce pot.
MARINARA
INGREDIENTS
- 4# fresh sauce tomatoes, grated on the large holes of a box grater so you have only the flesh and the skin stays behind (slice an x into the bottom before you start grating, so the skin separates and you only have the flesh. If you’re using cherry tomatoes, just throw them in whole, but de-stemmed). OR 2, 32 oz cans of peeled organic San Marzano tomatoes.
- 2-3 Cloves Garlic, smashed, papers removed (peeled), and thinly sliced
- 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper (to taste)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to taste)
- Salt, to taste
METHOD
- Coat the bottom of a large pot with EVOO, then add the garlic and chili flakes.
- Turn the heat to medium and sauté until the garlic becomes more translucent. If it begins to brown or burn, turn down the heat.
- Once your garlic is cooked- this only takes a minute or so- add the tomatoes.
- Add a few pinches of salt
- Stir, turn up the heat to medium high, and look for the sauce to begin to simmer and bubble. At that point, turn the heat back down to medium and cover the pot. You just want it to simmer, but you don’t want splatters of tomato all over your kitchen cupboards and ceiling! (hence the cover).
- Simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until everything seems cooked, then pour the sauce through a food mill, (my preference for the best texture and sweetest flavor!), food processor, or blender, and blend on low until the texture comes together as smooth and roughly the same size. If you blend on high, you risk pulverizing the seeds, which contribute a slight bitterness. Another reason why the food mill is my preference! Everything comes out the same size and it is a very gentle process!
- Once the meatballs are browned, scoop them off the sheet pan and add them into the sauce and let them finish cooking in the simmer- about 10-15 minutes.
- Extra Credit: Drain off the excess fat that accumulated on the sheet pan, then scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan into the sauce
SERVICE, PLEASE!
There is no wrong way to enjoy a meatball! Sprinkled with fresh basil, all by themselves out of the pot, with pasta, or my personal favorite: alongside a thick slice of sourdough brushed with evoo and grated garlic, then topped with fresh mozzarella and grated parm and baked to bubbly-browned cheesy gloriousness in a 400F oven!
To make this dish Gluten and Dairy Free, simply sub the bread component with your preferred gluten free option and same with the cheese! Easy-peasy!
If you’re pouring a glass or two of wine with these, I would stick with a medium bodied red and preferably something from la bella Italia! I’m thinking of Barbera, Sangiovese (Ciao, Chianti Classico or Montepulciano!), or Langhe Nebbiolo. Stateside, you can’t go amiss with a lower alcohol Pinot Noir (12.5-13%) or Gamay. Whilst there is a lot of umami bomb meatiness going on here, there is also a lot of acidity from the tomatoes- which creates balance on the plate- and a red with more acidity (lower alcohol- as in, lower than 14%) will play nicer on your palate.
Your future self will thank you if you make a large batch of these babies and freeze them! I always make a freezer batch in Fall so Eric and I can enjoy them after the first driveway snow blow of winter (when we often have a power outage and I can easily heat them in a dutch oven on top of the wood stove). There’s nothing quite like coming in cold and wet from shoveling snow for hours to a crackling fire and the intoxicating aroma of marinara and meatballs.
Whatever you pair these with, I hope you enjoy and eat them with gusto, my darling Polpette!
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