Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Eat my luscious brown balls
. . . which would be a much funnier title if I were something other than a Russian Jew, but hey, for all you know, I spent my Las Vegas vacation sunbathing in the buff.
Enough of that. Let’s talk meatballs. Here’s Marcella Hazan’s recipe, from her book, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, which I LOVE. Buy it. You won’t be disappointed.
This is for Elle, who asked for a kid-friendly, shrimp-free recipe, and for Anduin, who expressed an interest in my big juicy meatballs. My wife and son love these meatballs, and so do I.
A slice of good-quality white bread
1/3 cup milk
1 pound ground beef, preferably chuck
1 tablespoon onion, chopped very fine
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 egg
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
nutmeg
salt
freshly ground black pepper
toasted, unflavored bread crumbs, spread on a plate
vegetable oil
1 cup fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, chopped, with juice
I’ve taken a few liberties to simplify the recipe. Notes will be indicated by boldface letters.
1. Trim the bread crust (A), add milk to the bread, microwave 20 to 30 seconds, and mash it to a pulp. Allow the bread-milk mush to cool.
2. Combine meat (B), onion, parsley, egg, olive oil, cheese, and a grating of nutmeg (1/8 teaspoon), the bread-milk mush, salt, and several grindings of pepper. Gently knead the mixture with your hands witthout squeezing it (C). Once the ingredients are well mixed, roll the mixture into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Roll the balls in the bread crumbs.
3. Brown the meatballs in a saute pan, in vegetable oil, over medium high heat. Turn them gently and brown on all sides.
4. Remove excess oil. Add the tomatoes with their juice, a pinch of salt, and turn the meatballs once or twice to coat them well. Cover the pan and adjust the heat to simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Taste, correct for salt, and serve immediately (D).
Notes:
A. I would never have thought it possible to improve upon this recipe, but I did, quite by accident. The first time I made these meatballs, I used a New York (sometimes called Jewish) rye bread, both for the mush and for the bread crumbs. Try this recipe with white bread, and if you and your kids love it as much as we do, try it with rye bread some time. (It’s not just the caraway seed — I’ve tried that. The rye adds an interesting flavor, too.)
Low carb people: sorry, but the bread and the bread crumbs are necessary. I’m on a low carb diet, and so I’ve tried making this without the bread. What you get just isn’t the same. The meatballs are denser and far less moist.
B. You can double this recipe, which allows you to use a pound of ground pork and a pound of ground beef. I think the resulting meatballs are better than the all-beef meatballs, but once again, try it both ways and see. With a doubled recipe, I put the meatballs into a casserole dish, add the tomatoes, and allow them to cook in a medium-low oven (275F) for 25-30 minutes.
C. Oh, boy, is this a key point. DO NOT SQUEEZE! I used to really get in there with my hands and knead like crazy. A gentle touch at this step will yield moister, lighter meatballs.
D. They reheat quite well, which is why I don’t mind making a double recipe. Marcella says: “Reheat gently before serving,” which means, don’t microwave them — you’ll lose some of the juiciness if you do.
By the way: while in Las Vegas, I picked up Marcella’s Italian Kitchen by Marcella Hazan, which has many recipes not in the book I linked to above. In fact, I didn’t notice any duplication. If you buy Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and like it, consider buying Marcella’s Italian Kitchen, too. I haven’t had a chance to try anything from it yet, but it looks promising.
D.
I was just wondering what to make for dinner tonight, and now I have an idea. Do you think they’d work in a slow cooker? We have swimming lessons from 4:30-5:30, and I’d like to be able to leave dinner to simmer while we’re out.
I’ve never tried it that way, so I don’t know. If you do, be sure to try it the other way on another occasion, and then you can tell us the answer.
My suspicion is they would be fine. I would use the lowest heat possible.
yum.
thank you! I already like the luscious brown frosting you sent.
I use almost the same recipe for meatloaf – which I think I’ll make tomorrow night, since I have leftover homemade olive bread someone gave me, and I thought an Italian style meatloaf might accomadate it.
About the bread, try pumpernickel sometime, truly it doth rocketh! I got the idea from a friend who makes, for the Unitarian potluck, a meatloaf that is affectionately named “roadkill” looks ghastly, but the recipe makes great meatballs, and wicked tasty meatloaf (he also tosses in some shredded fresh spinach, and some anchovies melted in with the butter) And by the way, you’ve helped me figure out what to do with the beef I picked up on sale. I’ll grind it, and freeze meatballs.
Oooh – another good one. *copying & pasting madly* What do you usually serve to accompany this dish???
I’ve never combined beef & porch for meatballs, so this looks interesting. I’ve led a bland meatball existence. What can I say?
Lyn, my son likes it over pasta. How American. I’d like it with sauteed fresh spinach or perhaps oven-roasted green beans, and crusty French bread.
BTW, I presume you mean beef and pork?
Beard, pumpernickel sounds wonderful. Sure you’re not Jewish?
Sweet! I shall try on a night when I have time to dedicate to only this recipe. The doubling by adding pork sounds yummy. Thanks so much! :o)
My Italian mother-in-law taught me to make meatballs…from my old notes:
Meatballs Italian Rose’s recipe
Use for Grandama sauce and fried meatballs and after cooked in Grandma sauce may be used for lasagna or meat sauce.
Make one batch of Rose’s BASIC ITALIAN GROUND BEEF MIXTURE including celery leaves.
Handle gently – don’t compact tightly.
Form into ovals about the size of a medium egg.
Can be made to this point and refrigerated for several hours or overnight if ground beef was very fresh to start and mixture has been kept cold.
For Grandma sauce meatballs should be fried just lightly enough in extra virgin olive oil to hold together. Cooking will be completed in the sauce.
For fried meatballs, fry until well done in extra virgin olive oil. Serve with catsup and fresh Italian bread.
A good thing to do is make the meatballs one night, fry some for dinner and reserve the rest for making sauce the next day.
———————
This mixture forms the base for many of my Italian recipes (meatballs in sauce and fried, meatloaf, Grandma sauce (tomato sauce with meatballs and sausage, meat sauce, lasagna, stuffed peppers, cowboy stew, veggie burgers). These recipes came from my truly wonderful Italian Mother-in-Law Rose. She loved to share food and recipes so in her memory I pass them on to you. I will node the above linked recipes as I am able to get to them.
Please note, as a young cook I demanded to have measurements and would follow the dear lady around grabbing her “teacup of this” and “pinch of that” and measuring them. 20 years later, I find myself also ignoring measurements but I have gone back to my original notes from Rose to attempt to transmit these recipes to you. Feel free to modify the amounts knowing that this is normal.
Almost all these recipies are good if you like me are not really a vegetarian but just don’t eat meat. I’ll eat the other stuff and leave the meat portions for the rest of the family. I grant you the meat does enhance the flavor, I just can’t stomach eating the actual stuff.
Rose’s BASIC ITALIAN GROUND BEEF MIXTURE:
2 pounds ground round – not ground sirloin and not extra lean ground beef – a bit
of fat is needed
2 handfuls dry breadcrumbs made from stale Italian bread
2 handfuls ground Italian cheese
1/4-cup parsley – fresh or frozen and minced
4 eggs
Salt
Pepper
Water enough to dampen cheese and bread crumbs
1/2-cup celery leaves – fresh or frozen and coarsely chopped
Mix all ingredients together with 2 hands, may be done a few hours ahead of rest of recipe and refrigerated.
copy, paste, save as…..
I just love it when my repertoire expands 🙂
Thanks “Chef.” I will try it soon and let you know how it goes over.
Carla, thanks for the notes!
The rest of you, let me know how you like it 😉
I will try this, although I’m going to try it with low carb bread. If you can post some low-carb Italian dishes, I’ll be in heaven. : )
[…] 9. Meatballs in a red sauce — recipe here. Not only are these meatballs a meal unto themselves (meaning, you can skip the pasta if you like), you cook them in a tomato sauce, which makes a terrific red sauce for pasta. […]