Moms Favorite Meatballs

Ground Beef and Pork Meatballs

July 14th, 2008

Meatballs, nope not the movie – the food. I love a good homemade meatball cooked in marinara sauce. In my family I am known for making the best! I asked my mother who made the best between my sister and myself – she wouldn’t answer at first but when I motivated her by holding her glass of wine hostage she quickly answered correctly by saying mine were indeed the best, yup, even better than her own.

With that kind of resounding endorsement I feel it is now time I shared my meatball recipe with the world.

So here we go. You are going to need some stuff, these are not imaginary nor are they made with the leftovers you have in your fridge. This recipe should yield (holy crap, I used the word yield and wasn’t talking about driving) about 20 meatballs – you need a pound and a half of ground beef (85-90% lean) and a half pound of ground pork, clove of garlic, tablespoon of virgin olive oil, one large egg, quarter cup of regular bread crumbs, basil, parsley, oregano and ground pepper.

Get a large mixing bowl and a broiler pan, you know, the one comes with most ovens (shallow pan with the thin metal top that has slits in it) and gets in the way when you try and put your cookie sheets away… Ah, you read my blog, your smart, you’ll figure it out. Put the ground beef and pork in the bowl along with the bread crumbs, egg (not with the shell – pick the small pieces out…), olive oil and that clove of garlic. Make sure the garlic is minced very fine – ahh, what the heck, I like garlic, use two cloves (hey, its not like I have this stuff written down and today I feel like more garlic ). Now add a tablespoon of oregano and a couple of shakes (teaspoon?) of basil – tablespoon is the one you use for your cereal in the morning, the teaspoon is the smaller one you use to shovel the sugar into your coffee. Add a couple of pinches of parsley and a few shakes of ground pepper, if you have one of the peppercorn grinders then you really like pepper, add more.

Now that all the ingredients are in the bowl, if I missed one throw it in now, with your hands (after you washed them of course) mix the stuff – oh yea, take off your rings first.  After you have thoroughly mixed to the point it all has a consistent well blended look it is time to “maka da meataballs”.

Grab about 3 fingers of meat from the bowl and roll the meat mixture between the palms of your hands – the finished ball should be bigger than a golf ball yet smaller than a tennis ball (good size for leftover sandwiches). Place the newly formed ball on the broiler pan – repeat until the bowl is empty.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit or really, really hot Celsius. Place the broiler pan in the oven and brown the meatballs, don’t cook them, when they turn brown take them out (maybe 5-6 minutes in the oven total). Add the meatballs to your favorite marinara sauce and simmer them in the sauce until thoroughly cooked (about 45 minutes to an hour).

Bone-app-E-tit!

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