Mandy and Jace

I have a confession to make. I never liked meat balls. All the ones that I’ve tried were always huge, bland and in a thick, slimy sauce that drowns what little flavor that the meat may have. I didn’t like them until Jace found these while watching food network and made me try them.

Jace loves to watch Alton Brown on Food Network. Now, it’s not that I dislike AB but he tends to be too smart for his own good. When I cook, I like to use as few dishes as possible and keep everything neat and tidy. When he cooks he uses every dish in the kitchen plus most of the power tools in his work shop. So any time we watched him I just got more and more annoyed seeing him pull dish after dish out of his cabinets. You can just imagine me yelling at the TV telling him to WASH YOUR DISHES BEFORE FOOD DRIES ON THEM AND THE WORLD ENDS. It’s hard to imagine, I know. So, when this meatball recipe came up I was very skeptical of AB and meat balls in general, but I’m a good wife and I made them. Lo and behold, they were amazing. They have a little bit of a kick to keep you on your feet, but the parmesan and bread crumbs make them so smooth and wonderful. We don’t put a sauce on these because they just don’t need them. We cook some spaghetti and drizzle some olive oil and lemon juice then put the meat balls on top. Pure perfection!

Meat balls
adapted from Alton Brown
1/2lb ground pork
1/2lb ground lamb
1/2lb ground beef
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or just a bit more if you want them pretty spicy)
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

If your meat is not pre-ground grind your meat using a meat grinder. I used the grinder attachment to my big kitchen aid mixer.
In a large bowl, combine the pork, lamb, beef, cheese, egg, basil, parsley, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, and 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs. With your hands, form the meat balls into the size you want.

Place the remaining bread crumbs in a bowl or large coffee cup. Take each meat ball and roll it in the bread crumbs coating each one. Place each meat ball in the cups of a mini muffin tin. (If you don’t have one a baking sheet will do). If you have time place the whole tin with the meat balls in the fridge for about an hour so all the flavors can come together. If you don’t have time it’s ok.
Cook the meat balls for about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown and cooked through. Serve on top of spaghetti.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 9:15 am and is filed under Mandy, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.