Authentic Italian Meatballs

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3 (ZReboot) recipe. These meatballs are my take on an authentic meatball recipe from New York city. These actually have a cheesy element to them that make them super yummy. BIG YUM!

When I am in a hurry I can make these and then serve them with a jar of marinara sauce. You CAN find marinara in the grocery store that has no sugar in it. It might take some label reading, but you’ll find one.

And if I’m feeling super-fancy I might make a little pasta. For me, a full serving of pasta now is about 1/3 cup cooked. I put it in the bottom of the bowl. I eat the meat and sauce on top and hardly notice I have very few noodles.

Servings: Serves 4 (1 serving = 4 meatballs)

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound of high quality ground beef. I use 94% lean, but you can use any grade)
  • 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 cup of minced onion (you choose your favorite. I use Vidalia)
  • 1/2 cup of whipping cream or whole milk
  • 1 cup of finely grated Romano cheese
  • 4-7 tsp of minced garlic (Jar garlic will work, but fresh will taste even better! You decide how much.)
  • grated sea salt and pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbl of Italian seasoning blend

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Line a big cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray it with olive oil.

Take all of the ingredients and put them in a big bowl. Get in there with your hands and really mix it all up. The hardest thing to do is get the cheese mixed in. In my case I left little blobs of cheese in places and that didn’t hurt the results at all. I loved the little cheese bits. you don’t want to handle the meat any more than necessary so do your best to go fast. The Italians feel handling the meat too much makes tough meatballs.

I used a little 1/4 cup measure to scoop my meat and formed meatballs with my hands. Then place them on the cookie sheet so they don’t touch each other.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-20 minutes depending on how big they are and how browned you like your meatballs. I like mine to almost have a crunch to the outside so I keep them in there to the 20 minutes limit. Just keep an eye on them. I also use my convection setting. That makes them crunch up on the outside too.

Save any leftover meatballs you have in tupperware for an easy on the go lunch for the next day.

Enjoy!

Cheers,