A-mazing Homemade Italian Meatballs - Recipe and Tutorial

   This is my first recipe, and by far the longest post on my blog to date. But hang in there with me, and I promise it will be worth it.  If you read through this entire post and are not drooling by the end, then I'm guessing your salivary glands are broken. (Or my little camera is not good enough to capture the true beauty of the exquisite subject at hand.)

   Back in 2002, my dear friend Cara from Texas came to visit me at the Red Farmhouse. While she was here, she taught me how to make her dad's authentic Italian meatballs (and sauce, which I will have to share another time), creating a delicious, memorable meal, and leaving me with a couple more meals in the freezer for later.  I still make these meatballs (my slightly tinkered version) on a semi-regular basis. (Not often, because they are special and require a bit of work.) Today I thought I'd share them. Here are the handwritten recipe and instructions she gave me.  I feel happy every time I pull it out and read it again.

I had to make a double batch this time because I am feeding a lot of people on Sunday and  I want to have plenty.  Below is the single recipe I use. (I will include all the directions at the end of the post so you can easily copy and paste the ingredients and the directions onto a document you can keep and print out. I'm pretty sure you will want to do that.)

A-mazing Homemade Italian Meatballs

2   pounds extra lean ground beef
1   pound lean ground pork (plain pork, not sausage)
5   eggs
5-6 cloves finely minced garlic (fresh is best)
1   cup freshly grated Romano cheese (shredded style, not the powdery stuff)
1/2 cup chopped parsley, Italian flat leaf preferred (curly is OK)
1   teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, optional
1 1/2 cup Italian style seasoned bread crumbs
Water to moisten the crumbs, approx. 1/2 cup

Remove meat and eggs from the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes before beginning to mix ingredients.  Here are all the ingredients assembled and ready to go:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees to bake the meatballs.  (You can fry them in a large skillet in a little bit of olive oil, but I never do.)

You will need an extra-large bowl, a medium bowl and a small bowl handy. (Also get your large cookie sheet, and a baking rack if you have one, oiled and ready because when it is time to use them, your hands will be a mess and you won't want to stop and wash them. Trust me on this.)

First, dump the bread crumbs into the medium bowl, and sprinkle with the water to moisten.  Mix in just enough water so it clumps together if you squeeze a bit, but not so much that it's wet. It should still be crumbly. (You may need a little more or a little less than 1/2 cup.) Set aside for now:

Beat the eggs in the small bowl and set aside.

Next, mince the garlic and mix it with the cheese and optional black pepper in the large bowl. Then mix the parsley in with the garlic and cheese.Combine well:

A word about the parsley... you will use almost half of a bunch that you purchase if you chop it well. (I use my ancient Little Oscar, which still works like a charm.) I like to cut away most of the stems and only mince the leaves.  The parsley I bought was very stemmy, so I trimmed it quite a bit:

Next, crumble all of the meat into the bowl over the cheese mixture.  Break the meat up into small pieces as you sprinkle it into the bowl.

Dump in the reserved bread crumbs. Now comes the messy part - you must use your hands. (It's a meatball rule.)  Quickly mix all the ingredients together. Bring all the cheesy mix up from the bottom of the bowl and massage it gently.  Do not overwork the mixture or the meatballs will be too dense and tough.

Next drizzle the beaten eggs over the meat/crumb mixture.  Again, work the eggs in quickly and lightly with your hands, until eggs are just absorbed. (Your hands will feel pretty gross at this point, but you're almost done.)

(Photo confession: I forgot to add the breadcrumbs until after I added the eggs this time. 

Oops. Still turned out fine!)

Time to form the meatballs! (Right now is when you silently say, "Thank you Donna for warning me to have the baking sheet ready."  It's such a pain to wash your hands now, get the cookie sheets out, and then handle the meat again. I know. From experience.)  If you did not heed my advice, now is when you yell loudly for someone in the house to come and get you a cookie sheet.

You can place the meatballs right onto a cookie sheet, and they will end up slightly flattened on the bottom.  I prefer a baking rack placed over the cookie sheet. This lets the excess oil drip away from the meatballs and they have a nicer round shape at the end.  But flat-bottom meatballs are just fine too, and actually show that you are not serving the people you love some perfectly round, pre-fab, preservative-laden meatball.  :)

(I only have one rack, so I did it both ways this time.)

Scoop up enough meat mixture to make a meatball about the size of a golfball, or slightly smaller.  This recipe will yield about 40 meatballs of this size. (Well I got 39 per recipe this time, but hey, close enough.) Continue until all meat is used up.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Your house, which was already smelling good from the garlic and parsley, will now begin to smell like Italian Heaven. (Warning: people may begin to drift into your kitchen and ask what's cooking...which means they want one. Only you can decide whether or not you are willing to share at this point.)

Voila! A huge pan (or three!) full of luscious balls of meat-yumminess. I'd rather take these out of the oven than chocolate chip cookies!

Add them to a pot of homemade or prepared pasta sauce and let simmer for at least a couple of hours to flavor the sauce.

Stir gently from time to time, so they don't stick on the bottom, but be careful since they are a bit fragile.  Enjoy over pasta of your choice!

(These meatballs also freeze beautifully, and make a wonderful quick meal on a busy day.)
As promised, here are the condensed instructions you can copy and use with recipe above:

   Remove meat and eggs from fridge at least 20 minutes before you proceed with the recipe.
   Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
   Have the following ready: an extra-large bowl, a medium bowl, a small bowl, and a lightly greased cookie sheet and baking rack.
   In medium bowl, thoroughly moisten the bread crumbs with water.  They should be crumbly, not soggy. Use more or less than 1/2 cup, depending on humidity etc. Set aside.
   In small bowl, beat eggs. Set aside.
   In large bowl, pour the cheese, minced garlic and optional pepper.  Toss together.  Add chopped parsley and combine well.
   Crumble the meat into very small pieces over the cheese mixture. Sprinkle the reserved breadcrumbs over the meat.  With your hands, combine the meat-cheese-crumb mixture.  Work quickly and lightly - Don't overwork the meat or it will be dense and tough.
   Now drizzle the beaten eggs over the meat-cheese-crumb mixture and quickly work in until egg is just absorbed into the mix.  Again, don't overdo this.
   Form into meatballs, about the size of a golf ball.  Set on baking rack or directly onto cookie sheet.
   Bake in preheated oven for approx. 20-25 minutes. Put directly into sauce to simmer (at least one hour - longer is better), or allow to cool and chill/freeze for later. Serve with love over hot pasta of your choice.

**Please leave me feedback, since this is the first recipe I've posted.  Is it clear? Are there too many photos?  Did it make you hungry?  I'll try to do better next time!