This recipe is from my paternal grandmother a native of Abruzzo. I don't know if she would be happy with me in publisizing her meatballs but they are sooo good that I want to share them with those appreciate authentic Italian cuisine.
The following recipe is for the meatballs/polpettini and in general are added to a ragu sauce. The sauce (a modified, short-cut verions of the classical Italian ragu) will follow:
Serving size: 6
- 1 kg (2 pounds approx) ground beef
- 2 large Tuscan (or spicey Italian) sausages
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 3 eggs
- 200 grams breadcrumbs
- 1 Tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
- 100 grams grated parma cheese
- dash of origano
- pepper
PREPARATION:
In a good size bowl add the ground beef, the sausages (take off the skin), the eggs, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, origano. Your parsely and garlic first need to but cut fine (I use a half-moon) and add to the beef with the olive oil and perhaps a bit of balsamic vinegar (optional).
Mix up well with your hands and let sit for a few minutes. Make golfball size balls and make sure that they are compact.
In a large sauce pan add extra virgin olive oil, heat and place your meatballs and carefully turn so that they are uniformly browned. Note that you don't want to cook them completely during this phase but merely brown them so that they remain intact.
These meatballs then should be removed from the saucepan and placed carefully on kitchen papertowels to absorb the extra oil. They will then be added to your ragu sauce and let cook with the sauce for approximately 1.5 to 2 hours.
ENJOY!
