I never order meatballs in a restaurant.
And I’ll tell you why.
Nine times out of ten they are dense. Dense and relatively
flavorless. They just float around in whatever sauce they are served with being
all meaty and ball like.
So when my mom suggested a Sunday night of spaghetti and
meatballs, I set out on a quest.
A quest to discover the most moist and delicious of all the
meatballs.
I scoured high and low.
And by that I mean I did a Google search.
But none of the recipes I found looked that different from one
another.
And then I got a sign.
Actually, an email.
I get email blasts from a kitchen website every so often, and
it just so happened to be a recipe for meatballs.
A recipe with something special. Ricotta.
If you have been paying any attention to me lately, or even
trying to ignore me, I’ve made it really clear that I am currently obsessed with
ricotta.
I don’t care for it much on its own, but it makes dishes you
mix it with so light and fluffy and AWESOME.
As soon as I saw there was ricotta in this recipe, I knew it
was the one.
It was freaking awesome. The meatballs were so juicy and
flavorful on their own that they didn’t really need a sauce. But they would be
a great addition to any dish.
You will need…
2 tablespoons extra-virgin
olive oil, divided
1 medium white onion, diced
3 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 eggs
1½ cups fresh whole milk ricotta
2½ pounds of ground beef, preferably grass-fed
1 cup finely ground fresh breadcrumbs
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Kosher salt
Start by preheating the oven to
400°.
Then, in a medium skillet set
over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and add the onion and
garlic.
Cook until tender, about 8
minutes.
Add the thyme, oregano and
parsley and cook for 1 minute.
Remove the pan from the heat
and set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the eggs together.
Then fold the ricotta cheese
into them.
Using your hands, mix the
cheese-egg mixture with the beef, the reserved onion mixture, breadcrumbs and
Parmesan cheese until just combined.
Season with salt.
Using your hands, scoop the meatballs into rounds; roll each scoop into a
1½-inch ball in between the palms of your hands.
In a medium skillet set over
medium heat, add the remaining tablespoon of the olive oil. Add in the meatballs.
Cook,
turning, until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.
Place the meatballs on a sheet
pan lined with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes or until the internal
temperature of each meatball is 140°.
Serve warm or in your favorite sauce.
Heaven.
Love and Beer Floats
Angela
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