The Great Italian Meatball

For anyone wishing it would rain meatballs like in the animated flick, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, here’s the next best thing. I always like my meatballs huge, but not gigantic. I want them juicy and tasty. Of course good sauce would make you the perfect spaghetti and meatballs dish but Del Monte’s Italian spaghetti sauce works perfect for me, especially when I can store a batch of meatballs in the freezer and have it anytime I want. Because I know for a fact how expensive this can be at supposedly a fastfood joint such as Sbarro’s.

Growing up, meatballs has always been a quick and easy solution for lunch when school’s out. The ones I grew up with are really simple, just the usual ground pork mix with onions etc. Since I started my love affair with dogs, I try to minimize the use of onions, although I must admit, it is almost a necessity in every Filipino dish, but for my meatballs, no onion is required. I tend to give a tiny little nibble to my babies as a treat sometimes.

Ingredients:

1kilo ground beef
1/2 c. bread cut into pieces
1 egg
1/4 c. finely minced fresh parsley
1/4 c. Parmesan or Romano cheese
salt and pepper to taste
8 to 10 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 small white onion, finely chopped

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together and shape it into the size you think is a perfect meatball size for you. What I do once I’ve balled all the meat is I steam them till they’re cooked. Because if they’re quite big, it doesn’t completely cook all the way through the middle if it’s fried. And if you fry them till the middle part is cooked, it tends to be too toasty for my taste. Once they’ve been steamed, cool them for a bit before you freeze them. Then whenever you’re craving for spaghetti and meatballs, or just plain meatballs, you can fry them either in olive oil or whatever kind of oil you fancy. Don’t forget to sprinkle extra cheese.