Meatballs

It has been COLD here and we've had snow in Atlanta twice in the past few weeks! So, I'm all about comfort food for the moment. I love a good Bolognese sauce for sure-but spaghetti and meatballs happens to be the go-to comfort food pasta dish at our house.

I've started making extra meatballs to freeze since I found out they cook PERFECTLY from frozen in heated sauce. It makes a quick meal with no compromise on taste. I’ll add more details below.

This recipe was shared with me by a friend who grew up in New York City. Her family is of Irish descent and it turns out her mom and Italian mom neighbor shared lots of recipes as they raised their large families across the hall from each other. I don’t have a house full of people but I can imagine it would be tough to keep up with homemade meals for a large family. Kudos to those two moms for helping each other out!

Possibly taboo to post an Italian mamma’s meatball recipe…but here we go!

I did happen to play around with a few details - so it is not 100% the recipe she initially gave me - which alleviates any "real" taboo.

Thank you Roseanne! I think of you every time I make these :)

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound Ground Beef

• 1/2 pound Ground Pork

• 1 Egg

• 1 Tablespoon dried Italian Herbs

• 1/4 cup Breadcrumbs

• 1/2 Tablespoon Salt

• 1/4 Tablespoon Pepper

• 1 Tablespoon minced Garlic (or onion)

• 1 Tablespoon liquid (Milk, Broth or Water)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients except the meat and set aside to absorb liquid for 3 to 5 minutes. This will hydrate the breadcrumbs and dried herbs.

2. Add the ground beef and pork to the existing mixture. Using 2 forks, in a "pulling apart" motion, combine all the ingredients. The MAIN thing here is not to compress the mixture - which will make it tough. Seriously though - this is a big deal for the meatball [texture]!

3. Form the mixture into 2 inch (or smaller) meatballs. I like to use an ice cream or cookie scoop to portion onto a sheet pan. Then I add oil to my hands and roll each one lightly to smooth out. REMEMBER that we do not want to compress the mixture - just lightly coax into a sphere!

4. You can freeze at this point* Make sure the meatballs are not touching and freeze to solid (overnight) - then package into a freezer container.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes - flip them over - Increase the temperature to 400 degrees F and bake for 10 minutes longer.

   
   

   **To prepare from frozen: EITHER defrost overnight in the refrigerator OR simmer sauce on the stovetop then add the frozen meatballs (separate them if they might have stuck together during freezing) for 30 minutes until cooked through.

   *The original recipe was a double portion of this - so just double all ingredients for a larger crowd.

   *Although this is my favorite protein combo, I have made these with all beef, a beef and ground turkey combo, a beef and italian sausage combo...etc. It works well each time!

   ENJOY!