No More Store Bought Meatballs

It's recipe time again!  Today's feature...the Italian meatball.

Can I just say how difficult it is for me to put a real recipe together, like the kind you find in a cookbook but I am trying.  The only time I use measuring cups or spoons is when I'm baking and am forced to be exact.  So please feel free to play around with ingredients or with the measurements to suit your own taste buds.

This recipe is pretty much exactly how my mom makes meatballs and how her mom made meatballs.  Let's begin with a list of ingredients:

1 lb of ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 or 2 slices of slices of bread
1/4 cup parmesan or romano grated cheese
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dry parsley
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbs water
some fresh ground black pepper

Place the ground beef in a bowl.

In another small dish crumble up the two slices of bread and add the 2 tbs of water or maybe a little more if necessary until it looks something like the photo below.  Then add this mixture to the ground beef.

Add the remaining ingredients to the ground beef.

Now its time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty!  Get in there and mix it all up together.  It will end up looking like the photo below.

Okay now you're ready to shape your meatballs.  Any size will do, just be sure to keep the size consistent.  Personally I prefer the mini meatballs.  I also prefer to bake instead of fry.  I simply place some parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake the meatballs at 400F for about 20 minutes or so.

Every oven is different and mine is a convection oven so the cooking time may vary.  You really do not have to bake them fully since they will continue to cook through in the sauce.  However my family likes to eat the non-sauce version of meatballs so I like to make sure they are fully cooked (as in the second photo).

This may be a big batch for some people so at this point you can let the meatballs cool and freeze them.  When you are ready to cook them, pop them out of the freezer and straight into some sauce and let simmer for at least an hour....the longer you cook your sauce the more flavour it will have the more tender your meatballs will be.

I don't have a sauce recipe for you here but will try to add one soon.  You can add the meatballs to your favourite tomato sauce recipe or to your favourite store bought ragu.

Not the greatest photo but here is the final product.  Enjoy!  Please leave comments letting me know how your meatballs turned out.