Mi Nonis Italiano Meatballs Recipes

NONA'S MEATBALLS

Steps:

• Combine all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and form into 2-inch balls. (Makes about 18 meatballs.) Heat a large pan coated with oil over medium heat. Add the meatballs and cook until well browned. Reserve.
• Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, parsley and garlic, and saute until tender. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato sauce, and water and mix well. Add remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat; add the meatballs and simmer, uncovered 2 to 3 hours.

NONNA'S ITALIAN MEATBALLS

Steps:

• Prepare a large baking sheet by covering it in tinfoil. This will make cleanup a breeze. Lightly spray it with non stick cooking spray, and set aside.
• Add the bread crumbs and broth to a small bowl, stir, and let them sit for 10-15 minutes. Just until they've soaked up the liquid.
• Add the olive oil to a large skillet, and heat over medium high heat. Add the onions, tossing them to coat, and cook until the onions are soft and have become translucent.
• To a large mixing bowl add the meats, onions (once cool enough to touch), prepared bread crumbs, eggs, garlic, salt & pepper, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, and cheese (if using).
• Just like with a meatloaf, use your hands and mix everything up until evenly mixed throughout. This may take anywhere from 2-5 minutes, but make sure everything's evenly incorporated.
• Continue using your hands to form the meat mixture into meatballs, each approximately 1 1/2". Place them evenly out onto the prepared baking sheet until all the meat mixture's been used.
• Bake the meatballs at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until all the meatballs have cooked through and there's no pink left in the center.

MI NONI'S ITALIANO MEATBALLS

Steps:

• Place your preferred meat into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat eggs until smooth. Add half measured seasoned bread crumbs and half of beaten eggs to meat and mix thoroughly. Add the remainder of all measured ingredients including the eggs and bread crumbs. You may need to mix everything with your hands to make sure that all ingredients are well incorporated into the meat. The consistency of the meat should be wet, not sticky or pasty. If the meat wants to stick to your hands while rolling a meatball then you should add another egg, one extra egg won't hurt the end result no matter the amount of meat being used.
• Once you have a wet consistency of meat cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours(overnight is best).
• To prepare meatballs have a small bowl of lukewarm water handy to keep the meatballs from sticking to your hands while rolling. Scoop meat with a tablespoon to keep size consistent and timing for frying. When rolled into a ball the meat should be about the size of a golf ball. Fry meatballs in a 12 inch skillet in olive oil. Cook on medium heat for 2 minutes per side or until browned on both sides. Please note that the fry time is one quarter the time of being fully cooked since these meatballs finish cooking in a 2 hour tomato sauce. When all meatballs fried drop into your tomato sauce.
• Note: If you prefer you may bake the meatballs as well. Place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until nicely browned. Again the cook time is for meatballs that are halfway cooked since they again go into a tomato sauce for final cooking. Also ground turkey will cook faster than pork and or beef so be sure to test the doneness of the ground turkey. Any over cooking before dropping your meatballs into your sauce will result in dry over cooked meatballs.