La Perfetta Polpetta Italiana
I've been making homemade pasta sauce since I learned from my grandmother when I was very young. While I have many variations of my sauce, today's for example got a good portion of its flavor from a large red bell pepper, I consider the base or mother recipe finished.
For nearly 4o years on and off I have been tweaking my meatball recipe looking for the perfect meatball. Not too bready, not too hard, not too soft, and with a good meaty taste. Today I think I found that recipe.
For nearly 4o years on and off I have been tweaking my meatball recipe looking for the perfect meatball. Not too bready, not too hard, not too soft, and with a good meaty taste. Today I think I found that recipe.
Ingredients:
3 pounds ground beef (85/15)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup grated Romano cheese
1 1/2 cups of whole milk ricotta
3 large eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
4 shallots, finely diced
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp freshly ground sea salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Preparation:
In large bowl add all ingredients and thoroughly mix by hand until mixture is uniform in color. Form 3" balls pressing mixture tightly.
You can either fry the meatballs in olive oil, turning until all sides are lightly browned and then add to simmering sauce cooking for an additional 40 minutes, or you can put them directly in simmering sauce for an hour.
Yields 16 meatballs
If you don't make your own sauce you can try my crockpot sauce recipe from 2008, but please, don't use jarred sauce, if you want to do that just buy some frozen meatballs 😊.
