Nan’s Italian Meatballs

Talk about comfort food! This is Nan’s famous meatballs she made in less than an hour. You can pair these meatballs on a sub, which is what we did, or some spaghetti.  Some people use ground veal and ground pork and mix with the ground beef. This is just a simple ground beef meatball recipe  to satisfy your cravings.

For this meatball recipe, you will start by browning the meatballs in olive oil but do not cook all the way. We will be cooking the meatballs all the way in the sauce. The reason for the browning step is that if you were to just cook the meatballs in the sauce, a lot of times the meatball will fall apart. Frying the meatballs will give it an amazing texture and cooking the meatballs inside the sauce will give it its rich flavor. You won’t make meatballs any other way after making them like this.

In a large bowl, add the ground beef, bread crumbs, parmesan, eggs, parsley and garlic and mix with your hands. You may cover and refrigerate for one hour before.

Using wet hands, form meat mixture into balls about the size of a ping pong ball. Place on a plate.

In a large deep saucepan, pour the Arrabbiatta sauce and bring to a simmer on medium heat. Reduce heat to low to keep on a low simmer.

On medium high heat, add 1/2 inch of light olive oil and wait for it to heat up. Brown the meatballs on both sides. Do not cook all the way through as we will proceed to cooking in the sauce. Place meatballs on a plate with a paper towel on it.

Add the meatballs to the simmering sauce and cover for 30 minutes.  Serve on a sub or pasta. Garnish with parmesan.

When you heat up the oil, sprinkle a drop of water to see if the oil sizzles and its ready for frying.