I Was Telling My Son...

...that I made some really good meatballs last night and he asked me an excellent question, "How do you make them without having them fall apart while they're cooking?" I told him that he had asked a good question and that I would email him my recipe but that the most important 3 parts of making a well put together meatball are:

1. Use one good sized egg and one good half cup of bread crumbs to each pound of ground meat.
2. Use as many powdered spices as you can, steering away from sauces.
3. Bake the meatballs on a cookie sheet and then place it in the sink with one corner of the sheet down so that as much grease as possible drains from the pan (without allowing them to roll off the pan) and then, leave the meatballs sitting there for 15 minutes before you take them off the pan.

Now, whatever recipe you use, the above 3 hints should help assure a nice meatball that will stay together long enough to top the pasta and then, later, withstand being sliced for meatball sandwiches.

But, if you don't have a particularly good recipe or you'd like to try a new one, here's mine:


1.5 pound Angus ground meat (Use the best ground meat you can afford here, turkey or any other is certainly acceptable, as is 70/30 or 95/5 ground beef.) 


0.5 pound ground pork sausage (I use mild Italian)


2 good sized eggs (if you only have small eggs, use3 )


1 can baby food beef (I add it for flavor and consistency)


5 garlic cloves, chopped


1/2 cup each chopped onions and chopped green peppers


1 heaping C. of Italian bread crumbs


1 envelop Spaghetti Sauce seasoning (Like they sell by the gravy and taco seasoning)


2 t. salt


2 t. pepper


1 t. cayenne pepper


1/2 C. each of grated parmasan and mozzarella cheese


Mix all ingredients in one large bowl. If mixture seems too wet, dry by adding more bread crumbs a 1/2 C. at a time. If it appears too dry, moisten with cream, water, milk or, preferably, Italian  Dressing. But, the eggs should be moistening enough so consider adding a small egg before anything else for moistening. Roll the mixture into baseball size balls, as round and as smooth as possible. Bake in pre-heated 375 degree often for 30 minutes. If your balls are larger, check at 30 minutes and if necessary, turn heat down to 350 and cook for an additional 15 minutes. If yours are smaller, start the oven at 350 for 25 minutes and then, if necessary, turn oven down to 325 and cook for another 10 minutes. Remember  step 3 from the list of 3 hints for cooking a good meatball. Whatever size your balls are, keep an eye on them toward the end and remember to use your own common sense.


Consider further cooking before you take the meatballs out of the oven. Will you be cooking them more in the sauce? If so, don't worry to much about baking them all the way. I like to cook my balls in the sauce for another 45 minutes after baking.


One last thing, when I say the size of a baseball, I mean a hardball, not a softball.