Meatballs are a crowd pleaser on pretty much any occasion! My recipe uses fresh Italian herbs, plenty of aromatics and a high quality parmesan to ensure that the mouths you are trying to feed are happy and coming back for seconds!
Writing down my “meatball recipe” just feels so wrong!
Mainly because like with so many of my dishes, especially the Italian ones, I don’t use recipes- I used intuition. So making a “meatball recipe” is sort of counterintuitive to the essence of making meatballs, in my opinion… but you obviously here for a reason – so FOR YOU- I will go against my principles and try to nail it down!
What type of meat?
Pretty important question! I mean, they are MEAT balls after all! It is really important to use fatty ground meat, forget the lean 90/10 blend on this. Sometimes, fat is your friend. Go for a 80/20 blend, or 85/15. I always opt for grass fed, but I understand if it’s not available or within budget. However, if you choose a ground meat that is too lean the texture will be dry and crumbly.
Traditionally, combination of beef, pork and veal is used. However, I am not a huge fan of veal, so I skip the baby cow and only use ground beef and ground pork. I really feel like this yields the most flavorful balls (omg, i just typed that)
Whichever combination of meat you choose, it is important to buy it freshly ground. You want to be able to see the individual strands of meat from the grinder . NO prepackage tubes of meat, because it has already been overly compacted- and compacted meat will give you dense meatballs.
Super Fine Mince
I like my herbs and aromatics minced very finely in my meatballs. Biting into a big hunk of onion or garlic is just not a good look. My secret to satisfy this pet peeve of a prerequisite of mine is to use a food processor. The onions, garlic parsley and basil will be so fine it will basically just melt into the meat while cooking and give an even distribution of flavor. Also it will save on a ton of time. Just be careful not to over process, we don’t want to liquify the onion (yes, that is possible) just give it about 30 seconds “ON” stop to scrape down sides, and then another 15 seconds “ON” .
Watch Me:
NO breadcrumbs!
For real! I know that 90% of the recipes out there call for breadcrumbs, and it’s not not a completely arbitrary addition. They do help bind the meat together, however, it is actually better to make meatballs without breadcrumbs. Instead, I want you to use a combination of torn slices of white bread and milk to make a panade. Basically, a panade is bread soaked in liquid till mushy, and then it is used as a binder or thickener. Soaked bread has all of the binding power of breadcrumbs, without any dryness. Your meatballs with be much more tender if you use a panade!
Gentle Hands
Just as important as choosing the right ingredients and properly preparing them is the actual combining and forming for the meatballs. The key idea here is gentle hands! You want to work the meat as little as possible. The more the meat is stirred, squeezed, and squished, the denser your meatballs become.
To ensure as little mixing as possible, you should combine all of the ingredients with the panade before the meat is even introduced. Also, break apart the meat with a fork in a “pierce and twist” motion as you are opening it from the package. Then you want to use a fork to gently scrape and fluff the meat together with the panade mixture. Using a fork allows some seperation, as opposed to squishing with spoon. When panade and meat is almost completely incorporated together, you start with your hands. Gently!
Finally, when forming the meat mixture into balls, gingerly roll it in the palm of your hands pushing only enough to hold the meat together. Never squeeze. Gently pat the outside and transfer meat back and forth between hands to form the meatball.
Watch Video Here:
Perfect Italian Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs ground beef either 80/20 or 85/15 *grass fed is preferred
- ½ lb ground pork
- 1 yellow onion roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic peeled, smashed
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup fresh parsley leaves iltalian, flat leaf
- 1 cup Italian bread torn into small piece
- ⅓ cup whole milk
- 1 egg
- ½ cup parmesan cheese good quality and fresh grated
- 1½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 425
- Use a food processor to finely chop herbs and aromatics. Add onion, garlic, basil and parsley, close and turn on for 30 seconds. Open and scrape down sides, return cover and blend for another 15 seconds. Careful not to over process and liquify. Set Aside.
- In large mixing bowl, add small pieces of bread and milk. Let sit until bread absorbs milk. This will be your panade.
- Season the panade with parmesan cheese, egg, salt, black pepper and red pepper. Mix thoroughly.
- Add ground beef and pork, using as fork to break the meat apart as you add to bowl.
- Use to fork to gently incorporate all ingredients together. It will be almost like a scraping and fluffing motion. You don't want to over mix meat, as it will become tough. Then use you hands to continue to thoroughly combine.
- Roll the meatball into whatever size you you prefer. I made large ones, but if i were making for soup or for grinders or appetizers I would have made them smaller.
- Evenly space onto baking sheet lined with aluminum foil (not necessary, just easier clean up)
- Place in Pre heated oven on upper rack to get a nice sear on top. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Time depends of size of meatballs.
- Remove from oven and let simmer with tomato gravy (preferably homemade) for 10 minutes.
- Serve warm and Mangia!
Nutrition
If you like this recipe.. try my Chicken Parmesan with a Light Caprese Broth or Kale Pesto with Arugula, Tomatoes and Honey Lemon Ricotta
