Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Italian meat balls

I guess I should say something about this. When I cook, I keep everything in my head. I told myself that I wanted a vocabulary of things to cook but all in my head. I don't keep recipes written down. I might until I learn it and I only learn it if I want to do it again. The only reason I wrote this one down is so I can give it out. So when I say 1/2 cup of this or that, it might be more or less. I like to cook that way. I can usually remember what to do.

Italian Meat Balls

½ lb. Ground pork shoulder. Substitute with turkey
½ lb. Ground beef, lean.
1 large can of Italian tomatoes
Fresh Italian parsley. Substitute with fresh oregano or use both. Needs to be fresh however. 1/2 cup
Soft Mozzarella
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
garlic cloves
olive oil

In a bowl, mix ground pork and beef together
Chop garlic and parsley together to make green and white mixture then mix into meat (by hand)
Add one egg mix into meat (by hand)
In a bowl soften bread crumbs with milk. Squeeze milk out of bread and add bread to meat and mix it in.

(I suppose you could skip the bread crumbs if you wanted, or substitute with something else, It just makes it softer)
Salt and pepper.


Cut or form Mozzarella into 1 inch pieces.
Form meat around Mozzarella so that you have a meat ball with a cheese center, total size is 2.5 to 3 inch dia
In a fry pan heat up ¼ inch of olive oil.
Carefully place meat balls in and turn until brown all sides. I use a table spoon to turn them as they are soft.
I usually add them to the pan as I form them.
In a baking dish simmer Italian tomatoes and garlic.
Then place meat balls on top of tomatoes, grate cheese on top. cover and bake 45 min 350
Serve tomatoes and meatballs with one vegetable, or green salad (No pasta.) Some garlic bread.

I usually have it with broccoi and garlic bread.


2 comments:

Diane Lowe said...

Mmmm. Thank you! :)

don said...

You're welcome. Give it a try but make it with half pork, half beef and don't leave anything out the first time.

For bread crumbs I leave some french bread out so it drys out. Then I cut off the crust and discard. Cut the white part into small cubes then soak it in milk. The brown crust part won't soften up enough.