Sunday Morning Meatballs
Sunday Morning Meatballs, "Polpetta Prima"
The Sunday mornings of my youth were glorious. Our first stop after church was a great German bakery for a "healthy" variety of baked goods, then the news stand for the Sunday papers, NY Daily News and The Mirror. As the youngest, I always got first crack at the comics and at least 3 cinnamon sugar jelly donuts. My sisters and father would share the rest of the papers and show much more restraint with the bakery booty. And my mother, of course, was already working the large cast iron frying pan to fry a small mountain of meatballs to compliment whichever pasta she was serving that day. I would always top off my jelly donuts with a hot fried meatball straight from the pan. Nothing better!
Our Calabrese Meatballs are BIG. They resemble a plump hamburger. I normally make about 2 dozen at a clip. Feel free to cut the recipe in half, but I can tell you that they reheat/microwave great, stay fresh in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days when properly sealed in a container and I have never had to throw one away.
Ingredients
2 cups extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground beef 80% or 85% lean
1 lb. meatloaf mix - equal parts ground beef, veal and pork
3 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups grated Pecorino Romano
2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup fresh Italian flat leaf parsley chopped
1 tsp ground black pepper
4 cups seasoned bread crumbs - I like 4C brand seasoned bread crumbs for this recipe
3 to 4 cups water - room temperature
Directions
Pour olive oil into a large heavy saute pan, I use a 12" cast iron, enameled pan. Set the burner to medium low. Oil must be hot, not smoking though. When you place the meatballs in the pan, the oil should be halfway up the side of the meatball so that when you turn them over the other half is submerged.
In a very large bowl, add the meats, eggs, Pecorino, garlic, parsley and black pepper. Gently mix these ingredients using your hands. Add the bread crumbs and toss the mix a couple of times with a turning motion to get the bread crumbs to the bottom and middle of the bowl. Then add 2 cups of the water to moisten the bread crumbs and better incorporate them into the mixture. Add only as much of the remaining 2 cups of water, a little at a time, as needed to get the mix to a workable consistency, sticky enough to hold together, but not so wet that they do not hold firm.
I use a 1/2 cup dry measure to portion the mixture for each meatball. Roll the portioned amount into a round ball, and then flatten into a thick hamburger style patty. Carefully slide the patty into the hot oil and fry 4 or 5 at a time, whichever amount your pan easily accommodates. Usually 5 minutes per side gets you a nicely browned meatball. You will need to time test this on your cooktop based upon the size and conductivity of the pan, the meatball size and the specific burner temp. When you finish a batch, place them on paper towels in a large covered bowl to rest and drain of the excess oil.
How to finish cooking this delicious taste treat is a matter of preference. Some cooks like to drop them in their Marinara Sauce for long periods of time. Some skip the frying all together and drop them raw in their sauce. While both of these methods will certainly add meaty flavor to your sauce, it will cook some of the fat/flavor out of the polpetta.
I like to cook the meatballs in the sauce for 15 to 20 minutes, NO MORE. This method will yield a very flavorful and moist meatball. Also, some people prefer theirs without any sauce, and 1 minute in the microwave will do fine.
Buona fortuna!
