It has been just over a year since I first published my meatball recipe on the blog. Since that day, it has become my 2nd most popular recipe, next to my Beer Bacon Chocolate Chili. There is only one problem, I never put pictures up with the recipe…which is really a shame because they are quite lovely, as you may note in the picture above…and the picture below….
In the last year, I have refined the recipe to make enough for 2 people (with leftovers), or 4 people for dinner. These have become an old stand by for crockpot days, when I simply skip the baking and just throw the raw meatballs in the slow cooker with sauce and let it go all day. Honestly, I sometimes find myself making these once per week.
I have also refined the sauce that I cook these meatballs in. Seriously, I couldn’t have made it any easier for you guys. Pour a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes in your pan, add 1 tsp sugar, a handful of torn up fresh basil leaves, and let it simmer. Once you add the meatballs to the sauce, they really bring out the light, wholesome flavors of the simple ingredients.
One note, one of the trickier things about this recipe is the layering of ingredients. If you are making them for the first time, you may wonder how that works, so I figured a picture might help:
And like I said last year, the less you handle the meat when it is raw, the better the texture of the finished meatball. So, when mixing the ingredients, work from the edges and kind of fold the mixture into the middle as you go around the bowl.
Homemade Meatballs (Based on Rao’s recipe)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb Ground beef, ground sirloin or ground pork (or a combination of the 2)
- 1 Large Garlic Clove (crushed)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1 Egg (room temperature)
- 3/4 cup Water (room temperature)
- 3/4 cup Fresh Reggiano or Pecorino Cheese (grated)
- 1/2 cup Seasoned Breadcrumbs
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375
- Place meat in a tall mixing bowl and press into the bowl
- Put garlic on top of meat and lightly rub the garlic around the top of the meat
- Sprinkle with salt & pepper
- Crack your eggs on top of the mixture
- Remember- You have NOT stirred or mixed anything yet, you are layering
- Pour the water over the mixture
- Sprinkle the cheese over the water to make a top layer like a tablecloth
- Cover the cheese with the breadcrumbs
- Now you are ready to mix. Mix from the outside of the bowl to the middle and fold it in.
- After you go around the bowl twice, the mixture should be mixed. Do NOT over handle the meat.
- Roll into your preferred size meatball and place on a greased cookie sheet
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until the top of the meatballs begin to brown
- When baking is complete, place meatballs in a pot full of your favorite sauce and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.
- Serve over your favorite pasta (mine is papparadelle) or on hoagie rolls
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | beef. pork, italian, main course, main dish, meatball, potluck, recipe
They sound awesome. I am always trying new meatball recipes.
They are pretty much fail proof. Let me know how they turn out if you try them!
I love making meatballs with a combo of beef, pork and veal…so I’m loving the beef/pork combo!
I actually prefer them with the pork over just beef. I have made them with all pork a couple times, and they were outstanding….maybe better than with beef….
I’ve always pan fry my meatballs to brown. is oven baked better?
I’d say the results are pretty similar. However with baking, you can eliminate some of the fat, it is easier, and the clean-up is easier as well.
Great post. I too have a great meatball recipe on my blog …
http://oddlyhealthy.com/healthy-eating/sweet-onion-and-soy-sauce-turkey-meatballs-recipe/
It’s slightly different from yours but, I think you and your readers will love it too.
Right now, I just started and I know it’s 1 in a sea of a zillion blogs. I aspire to have a blog like yours. Like you, I will do my best to offer the best possible content to my readers. Thanks for the great post and inspiration.
I have been pondering meatball recipes and this looks like a winner… I will definitely be trying them in January (how could I not with such convincing pictures?!) My crockpot will thank you!
I haven’t made meatballs in the longest time. My personal favorite is to do a meatball stuffed with goat cheese (I made a version like that with a blueberry balsamic BBQ sauce.
We’re making these to bring for Christmas dinner. I’ll let you know how they turn out!
I love it! I cant wait to hear about them!
I mentioned on Twitter already that these meatballs were a big hit at Christmas dinner. Here’s the longer story. We doubled the recipe to make about 40 meatballs and prepared them up through Step13. We let them cool and then put them in the fridge overnight in a big lasagna pan. The next day, we drove them, plus our sauce ingredients, to my wife’s family’s house and finished cooking them in the sauce on site.
They were delicious and everyone loved them. We had fewer leftovers than we had hoped we would. My only change, were I to double the recipe again, would be to reduce the breadcrumbs and cheese by 1/4 or 1/8 cup. By doubling the recipe, I think they became a little more dominating in the final version and I lost some of the meatiness in the meatballs.
I’m definitely making these again!
Thanks for the update Kelsey! Im a thrilled they were a hit!
Well, I have had much trouble since moving, when it comes to finding the Frozen Meatballs I once was able to buy, so, I have turned to the Web. for “How to Make Homemade Meatballs” as a divorced male, and now the “Little Miss Homemaker” I am darn well going to give this ” Absolutely the Best Homemade Meatballs Ev-er” a Try! and I will let anyone else in my boat, know how if they Sink or Float.
One question: what brand of crushed tomatoes do you recommend? I think they have a huge variation in taste from brand to brand. At the moment, I’m using Tuttoroso, but I’ve used Scalfani in the past. Muir Glen used to be good, but I recently bought a bad batch. What do your recommend?
I use Tuttoroso or Pastene. If I cant get those, then Red Pack. But those two are my preferred…right now at least!