'Best meatballs I ever tasted' ? for LOU

16 years ago

"The best meatballs IÂve ever tasted." ThatÂs what my wife said about this recipe. I made this dish last weekend. It took most of Sunday morning, including 2.5 hours in the oven. In a thread about his own meatball recipe, Lou asked me for this recipe, so here is a summarized version of it. If you want the full version, you might try your local library for CookÂs Illustrated, Sep/Oct 2009.

Hearty Italian Meat Sauce (Sunday Gravy)

Sauce

2 T olive oil

1 side of baby back ribs, patted dry, salted and peppered, cut into 2-rib sections

1 pound spicy Italian sausage

2 medium onions, sliced

1.25 tsp oregano

3 T tomato paste

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes

2/3 cup beef broth

Â¼ cup fresh basil leaves chopped

Heat oil in large dutch oven and brown ribs and sausages. Remove.

Add onions and herbs and cook until onions begin to brown. Add tomato paste and cook until it darkens. Add garlic, then canned tomatoes. Put meats back in pot, cover, and cook in 325 oven for 2 and one-half hours. [I found that this time cooked the sausage and ribs too long and would add meats to cook for a total of 90 minutes.]

Meatballs

Begin to make meatballs about an hour before the sauce is finished.

2 slices white bread

Â½ cup buttermilk

Â¼ cup flat leaf parsley

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 egg yolk

Â½ t salt [I would add more]

Â¼ t red pepper flakes

1 lb meatloaf mix [I used 1 lb ground beef + Â½ lb bulk breakfast sausage]

1 oz thin sliced prosciutto, chopped

1 oz Pecorino Romano, grated [I couldn't find PR, so used Asiago]

Â½ cup olive oil

Put first 7 items in a bowl and mix well. Add remaining ingredients [but not olive oil] and mix again. Make into large meatballs [I used a medium ice-cream scoop]. Brown meatballs in hot oil, and add to sauce in dutch oven to cook for 15 minutes.

Dress cooked spaghetti lightly with the sauce, plate, and add a meatball, a sausage, and a section of ribs to each plate. Serve remaining meats and remaining sauce at the table for those who want them.

If you try this, I'd like to hear what you think of it. Tomatobob

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Comments (11)

hawk307
16 years ago
Bob:
Sorry you went thru the time to put in the recipe but I have to dissapoint you.
I thought your's was something different.
I've made it this way many, many, times and have evolved to the Recipe that I use now.

I make a Meat Sauce. Mix in chopped, simmered ground meat.
Use Chicken Broth now instead of Beef.
Put in some Chicken Thighs at the start and take them out when tender.
Put the Baked Meatballs and Sausage in for only about a half hour.
Again , I'm sorry to make you go thru all this.
Believe me , I know how you may feel.
Thanks Lou
foodonastump
16 years ago
I think on the surface any Italian-style meatball recipe is going to be pretty much the same thing. One or more types of ground meat, some herbs and spices, a binder, probably some cheese, maybe a surprise ingredient or two. Yet I've eaten many more bad or "just ok" meatballs than great, stand-out meatballs. That tells me the subtle differences in the recipes really make a difference. I'm not sure that I've seen a recipe with buttermilk before, and I know I've never added prosciutto. Both sound good to me. Here's the ingredients list of meatballs from a Gourmet recipe that I made a while back. Nothing "different" here except perhaps the lemon zest. But I'll tell you that they were hands down the best meatballs I've ever made and among the best I've ever eaten. Don't know why, but they were.

2 medium onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 cups torn day-old Italian bread
3 cups whole milk
6 large eggs
2 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/4 pound)
1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped oregano or 1 teaspoon dried, crumbled
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 pounds ground veal
1 1/2 pounds ground pork
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (not lean)
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lindac
16 years ago
Bob that sounds fabulous and I am sure your time cooking and posting the recipe was not in vain. Others will like to copy your recipe and I am sure your family loved eating that!
And Stumpy, I have also put lemon zest into meatballs...but it was in meatballs for including in Italian Wedding soup. I get many many compliments and people ask what makes the meatballs different...and are surprised when I tell them it's grated lemon rind!
I've had more than my share of very mediocre meat balls and a few that were downright bad...I left them on the plate.
I like a moist meatball, not too dense and I want my meatballs about the size of a walnut...or smaller for including in soup.
I sometimes include some hot Italian sausage from
Graziano's in with ground beef.
Linda C
jessyf
16 years ago
Stumpy?
lindac
16 years ago
LOL! Somehow Stumpy sounded a little more familiar than FOAS.
So, Jessie...how do you make meatballs? Do you think Lou would consider your recipe a waste of time if you posted it?
Maybe that's another thread! LOL!
hawk307
16 years ago
Linda C:
You never end with your carp.
I just told Bob what I do, just the same as you with me.
Some others will pick up on his recipe.
It wasn't a waste of time.
Why don't you find someone else to belittle. LOL !!!
It's getting old !!! LOL

Lou
PS: LOL !!!
friedajune
16 years ago
Foodonastump - your meatballs recipe sounds great. Can you post the entire thing (not just the ingredients list)? Thanks.
lindac
16 years ago
I am wondering how Tomato Bob felt when told that you were sorry he had gone to the trouble to make and post that recipe when you had tried every way possible and weren't going to try anything else and that recipe was no different than other recipes you had made.
All tomato meat sauce is pretty much tomatoes and meat, the one from Cooks Illustrated was different to me in that it used baby back ribs and lots and lots of fresh basil and buttermilk and proscuitto in the meatballs.
I am much more likely to try that recipe than many others, because it really does sound a little different, and have found that recipes from Cooks Illustrated to always be a bit special.
I guess I feel that if you have made it all, done it all and are convinced that your way is best over all, why would you be looking and reading here?
I read hoping to learn...I have been cooking in my own kitchen for 52 years, and before that in my mother's kitchen or friends', but there are always new ideas.
Hang in here TomatoBob...some of us like to read your recipes.
Linda C
foodonastump
16 years ago
akchicago - For some reason cut & paste is annoying me so I'll just link the recipe...

Here is a link that might be useful: Gourmet's Spaghetti and Meatballs
hawk307
16 years ago
Linda C:
I have never said,I have done it all and convinced my way is the best.

That is usually your line.

I always have said there are many ways to do things and everyone has the best.
And give my way. Maybe someone will like them.

I look and read here to maybe put in something different,
that I have done, new idea's.
I don't think I've ever put in anyone else's recipe.

Don't know why you're here? I think one good reason is to aggravate me.
I have enough problems, really don't need this.

I already apoligized to Bob and said I should have worded my Thread differently.
You have made your points and probably turned him against me. You may have another Allie !!!!!
Thank You

LOU
User
16 years ago
Bob thanks for posting the recipe. I was hoping you would. I have a very complicated recipe for Sunday gravy , this one sounds much better and much simpler. I'm going to try it this weekend.

Stumpy, ( LOL Linda , I love it! ) that is very ,much like Mamma's recipe. I think it's the amount of eggs and the fresh bread crumbs and milk that make them so tender. Looks like a great recipe.

I love good meatballs!!!

'Best meatballs I ever tasted' ? for LOU

Comments (11)

hawk307

foodonastump

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