04-02-2008, 08:54 PM
Twitchy's Italian Meatballs
Ingredients:
2 pounds chopped meat
2 -3 cloves garlic - crushed
a couple spoons basil
small handful oregano
very small handful salt
pepper to taste
4 eggs
Italian seasoned bread crumbs
Light olive oil for frying - Or you can broil until browned.
In a large bowl, mix meat, 2 eggs, garlic, oregano,basil, salt, pepper, until it's all mixed together well. Make a 'dent' in the center and toss in a good amount of bread crumbs. Mix well. Add another egg, more bread crumbs and adjust until this all comes to a nice workable consistency. It should be dry, not slimy from the eggs, and be able to hold a shape. Keep adding bread crumbs or eggs until you find the right consistency.
Make lots of little balls, about an 1 1/2 in diameter. We like small meatballs, the big ones are just too 'familiar'
You now have the choice to either fry them in olive oil/veg oil combo *half & half* or broil in the broiler. You don't have to worry about how well done they are because now you are going to toss them into that vat of sauce you have on the stove!
Basically you want to cook the meatballs in the sauce for about an hour or two or three. The longer the better, but you need to 'learn' the too long point. Tossing in meat balls into the sauce makes the sauce even more flavorful.
The same goes for sausage and bracciole. Any meat that goes into your sauce, you brown it well on the outside and let it fully cook inside by tossing it into your cooking sauce.
If you need to continue cooking the sauce, simply take out the meat, set it in a bowl and continue cooking the sauce until you're satisfied.
You can cook meatballs fully through and toss them, once cooled, into a baggie and freeze them to use any time you make sauce. Simply toss in the frozen meatballs and they'll cook up fast enough!