I’ve been experimenting with meatball recipes and have found an excellent one here. The basic idea is to take a base of ground sausage or pork, mix in other meat such as ground beef, pancetta or prosciutto, add herbs, bread cubes, ricotta cheese and eggs, then brown them on high heat in the oven, add some crushed tomatoes and cook on lower heat until they are done.
Why Make Meatballs with Sausage?
The following is an adaptation from a couple of recipes from San Francisco’s A16 restaurant (the book A16: Food + Wine and an A16 recipe in Food and Wine). We used half ground pork and half Italian sweet sausage with some minced prosciutto for these meatballs. We use sausage because of the seasoning and the higher fat content which keeps the meatballs from drying out. The ricotta helps as a binder and also helps smooth out the texture and enrich the flavor. We’re meatball lovers here, so if you have a favorite meatball recipe to share, please let us know about it in the comments.
- To chiffonade basil leaves, stack leaves on top of each other, then roll up leaves lengthwise like a cigar, slice thinly starting at the end. Form meatballs in your hand, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, using about 3 tablespoons of the mixture to form each meatball. Arrange in the pan so there is some space between them. If they are too crowded, they will steam and not brown. Return the pan to the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 300°F. Cook for an additional hour to 1 1/2 hours. Sprinkle basil into the sauce and top with Parmesan before serving.
