Italian Meatballs

Americans love spaghetti and meatballs. Italian-American restaurant offer a plate piled high with spaghetti topped with 2 to 3 jumbo meatballs in a tomato based sauce. Some restaurant meatballs are huge providing as many calories and saturated fat as a steak.

Italian polpetti is plural for meatballs. In Italy, meatballs and salad are served after the pasta as an entree not with the pasta. Spaghetti and meatballs, like so many Italian-American foods, is an American invention.

Southern Italian meatballs are moist and tender. Some recipes produce dense, tough meatballs. Like meatloaf, bread is added to absorbs liquids, like tomato sauce, resulting in melt-in-your mouth meatballs. Small meatballs added to broths or soups call swell to twice their size.

This recipe makes 30-40 large meatballs or 100-120 small meatballs. Meatballs can be frozen for six months or more and used as needed. Meatballs cooked in tomato sauce can also be frozen for later use

Homemade meatballs have less than half the sodium of commercial prepared meatballs without sacrificing flavor.

Enjoy!

Cook’s Tips

• Meatballs to be eaten after frying or frozen for later use must be cooked through to an internal temperature of 160°F. Meatballs added to tomato sauce do not have to be fully cooked since cooking will be completed as the sauce cooks.
• Cooled meatballs can be placed in a freezer bag and frozen for up to 6 months.
• To reduce calories form fat, meatballs can be baked in a 350°F oven about 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.

Related Recipe

Meatloaf

Beef & Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1 lb. (450g) lean ground beef
• 1 lb. (450g) lean ground pork
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (25g) grated Romano cheese
• 4-5 slices (120g) French or Italian bread
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water or white wine
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) fresh parsley minced
• 1 teaspoon (5ml) Kosher salt
• 1 garlic clove minced
• Olive or vegetable oil for frying

Method of Preparation