How to Make Italian Meatballs

How to Make Italian Meatballs Alright, today we’re doing meatballs, viewer request, actually many viewer requests to this recipe. It’s really easy as always—as I say there. That’s 1/3 of a cup of plain dried breadcrumb that we are going to moisten with ½ cup of milk. So give that a stir, let that sit for about 20 minutes. In fact while you sauté your onions I’m about to show you that would turn into a nice paste that’s going to help bind the meatball. And also that milk enzymes in the acid are going to actually make for a nice tender meatball. So there’s my one onion that I finely chopped, and some olive oil, a couple of tablespoons, the rest of the stuff, couple of eggs, now I like a lot of parsley. If I’m you, and this is the first time you’re making this, use about half of that, so I’ve used a quarter cup if I was you. I’m going to use a half of cup, I’m a parsley person. That’s three or four cloves of crashed garlic. That’s about a teaspoon of dried Italian herbs, the classic dry Italian herb mix, the rosemary, the thyme, the basil, the oregano, the mushroom, and so forth. A couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan, that’s optional, but I like it, and salt and pepper. Okay now salt. The rule of thumb when you’re making sausage and meatball, about a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half per pound of meat. So that’s what I want with this. So it’s about two teaspoon of salt, pepper, and little cayenne. I like half pork, half beef, so I’ve got one pound of each and I’m just going to mix those together. Don’t be too aggressive here. We just want to kind of mix the beef and the pork together. Since we still have to mix this with the other ingredients, we don’t want an over mix, over worked they’ll get tough. So just mix those until they come together. So again, that’s one pound of beef, one pound of pork, and I use the 80-20, 80% lean to 20% fat. You need a little fat. There’s no way around it. I know they sell that stuff like 95% lean now. You can use it. It just won’t be as succulent. So in about 20 minutes, my onions were lightly sautéed. I added my breadcrumb and milk mixture which in the same amount of time, it turned into a nice paste. And again, the onions don’t have to be cooled. Once you sauté them, as long as they’re not hot, you’re fine. So add that to the one pound of beef and the one pound of pork, the onion and the breadcrumb mixture. And then the rest of the stuff goes in. So I want to go, do the two eggs, I just give them a light little mixing with the fork. My half a cup of parsley again, that’s more than standard, I would probably go with half of that. If this is the first time you’re making this. I do like a lot of parsley. Three or four cloves of crushed garlic, that’s not optional. So you’re not just going to use the garlic, don’t bother making these. We’ll make something else, maybe cereal. Alright, and I’m going to add my parmesan, that is optional. So people can have cheese. Alright, my salt and pepper mixture again, I gave it a shake of cayenne pepper, about half teaspoon of black pepper and just over two teaspoon of salt. Now a lot of people, traditional Italian type of people. They put their hand in this and they mix it up, and they smash it, and it gets all between their fingers. And I’ve got to admit it, it does feel good. But your hand is hot. And I don’t want to introduce any heat into this at this point. So I just want to give this and mix with my spatula or my wooden spoon if you have to. I just want this mixing enough until it comes together. You don’t want to overwork it. And you can tell. You can see when it’s pretty much there, okay, which is right about there. So why am I still mixing it, I don’t know. I just stopped. Now what we’re going to do is we’re going to put plastic wrapper over this and we’re going to put it in the fridge. See, it’s really soft now. I want to firm up a little bit. I think it’s easier to form. So you could start making meatballs now. But I think you should put it in the fridge for an hour. Come on, you can wait. You’re probably making yourself anyway. Alright, hour later, it’s been chilled. It’s going to be easier to work with. Now when you roll these meatballs in your hands, you can use an ice cream scoop by the way. I didn’t. I couldn’t find mine. But if you’re going to roll them with your hand which is traditional, you should use wet fingers. So get a nice little ramekin of cold water, deep your fingers in there, give those meatballs a little roll. I go with just slightly larger than golf ball size. Now I’ve done extensive scientific studies on the perfect meatball size. And this is the size I’ve come up with. That’s the perfect size. Now why for me this is the perfect size, I’m going to show you in a second. I’m going to put those on a slightly oiled foil covered half sheet pan. And when I was done rolling or balling if you prefer, I had exactly 30 golf ball sized meatballs on that sheet pan with just enough space between them. So for me for a two-pound batch, you’re making that size, you use it all, it works beautiful, okay. So it’s sort of some kitchen math there for you. So again, you make them as big as you want. I don’t care but that’s my official Chef John meatball size. I don’t fry mine. I bake them. I put them in a very hot oven, 425, for about 15 to 20 minutes just until the outside gets a little nice brown going. And then the rest is easy. Adding in to your favorite tomato, or spaghetti sauce, and let them simmer. I go on low, simmer on low for about an hour and you’re ready to eat. Some people again, controversy. Some people -- oh you’ve got to simmer three or four hours, then they’re nice and tender. Well it probably works. Now you don’t have to simmer it only maybe 10 to 15 minutes, fine. I’m not going to argue with these people. I simmer mine for about an hour, sometimes a little longer on longer on low. And again, if you’re not going to use a really, really nice flavorful beautiful spaghetti sauce, your meatballs, it’s actually going to suck the flavor out of the meatball. So I want you to use a really nice spaghetti sauce when you make your meatballs. That’s one of the keys and of course, I’ll do that demo on the site but there we go. Today was just about the meatball for photography purposes. Of course, I have to grate some parmesan on and throw a few pieces of parsley on top. But anyway, that is my version of Italian meatball, very nice, very tasty. I’m not going to say that’s a spicy meatball because that will be a cliché. And anyway, the best thing about these are leftovers, hot meatball sandwiches, come on, forget about it. There you go, foodwishes.com, I hope you're checking it out. You’ll see the recipe, the story, any anecdotes and the extra info you need along with the ingredient amounts. 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