Cook: Best Ever Meatballs
For those of you that know me well, you know my favorite shaped foods are ball shaped foods. They literally are the best foods: boba balls, mochi, dumplings, arancini, ice cream scoops, lychees, grapes, olives…AND, meatballs!! I could go on and on and on. Anyways, I love meatballs. I’ve made them many times, many different ways, and this is my favorite recipe. Obviously, I love eating meatballs with spaghetti and homemade sauce, but there’s a whole world of things you can do with meatballs. You can make a meatball sub, a Swedish version in a creamy gravy, turkey meatballs with a lighter, linguine type sauce, or eat them with some grilled veggies as their own meal. The possibilities are endless!
Most traditional meatballs use a blend of three meats: beef, pork and veal or lamb. You can use any combination of those that you like. You can also make this recipe with just ground turkey which will create a surprisingly moist ball that’s a great option if you’re cutting back on red meat. I also recommend using white bread soaked in buttermilk or milk vs. dry breadcrumbs. I think that the dry breadcrumbs tend to dry out the meatball a bit, and I like to keep them as juicy as possible. If you are going to use dry breadcrumbs, I like panko. These give a nice, crunchy texture.
Ingredients:
2/3 lb of beef
2/3 lb of pork
2/3 lb of veal or lamb (really any combination of meat that’ll get you about 2 lbs)
2 eggs
1 slice of good quality white bread soaked in buttermilk - if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, regular milk is fine!
3-5 garlic cloves (finely minced)
Lots of parmesan cheese
3-4 tsp of kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1/2 cup of white onion (finely chopped)
2-3 tbsp of chopped parsley
Directions:
Mix the bread (make sure it’s fully soaked), garlic, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, onions, parsley, and eggs. If you want to get fancy, you can use a stand mixer, my favorite way is with my hands. I also invested in some cooking gloves so that the meat doesn’t get in my fingernails. These truly make a difference when you cook and they are also great if you’re cooking super spicy foods or you have a cute manicure.
Mix the meat in with your hands so that everything is nice and blended.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Form the mixture into medium sized balls. I actually recommend using a scale for this. It sounds extra but the consistency in weight will help with your consistency in cooking.
To make them super juicy, this his how I like to cook them. Get your cast iron nice and hot. Sear the meatballs on each side (so they stay round). Once you are done, use tongs to carefully remove them and stick them in a shallow tray that will hold liquid. Pour some beef stock in (about an inch deep).
Cook for about 25 minutes and then serve!
Work towards making spaghetti and meatballs. My inspo for this pic was the spaghetti emoji. Not too shabby!
Mix all your ingredients in a large bowl.
Use a food scale to weigh out your balls for consistency.
The more even they are the more evenly they will cook!
Let them simmer in beef broth after you’ve seared them.
Perfectly browned balls!