Mamma Mia

Meatballs

My family LOVES when I make meatballs.  When they asked what I was making for dinner yesterday and I said "meatballs" they were all happy and excited.  I swear Anthony came into the kitchen 20 times yesterday peeking in the oven and asking when they would be done.  He said the smell was driving him crazy. 

Here's how I make my meatballs....I make a huge batch of them at a time, because I like to freeze some for another night or we'll do pasta and meatballs one night and another night we'll do meatball subs.

Ingredients:

Ground Beef

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Salt

Eggs

Parmesan Cheese (or Parm and Romano combo)

Italian Bread Crumbs

Italian Seasoning

Parsley

* Sometimes I'll chop an onion up and throw that in too (depends on if I have any in the house)

Preheat your oven to 375*

Get a HUGE mixing bowl and just start dumping everything in.  A little of this....a lot of that.  I usually add a good bit of bread crumbs and cheese in the bowl and then a few dashes of salt, pepper and garlic salt to it.  Then I add the italian seasoning for more flavor and the parsley for a little color.  The eggs hold everything together, so you have to use your best judgement as to how many you need.

I don't measure!

Now, get your hands in that bowl and mix it all together. It's really the only way to mix it up well. Plus, you're hands are going to get messy anyway when you start rolling them into balls.

Start rolling the meat into balls.  I usually make them slightly bigger than bite size and smaller than the palm of my hand.  Then place them in a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Don't add any sauce or anything like that.  Just the meatballs.

Bake them for about 40-45 minutes

Then, take them out of the oven and VERY carefully drain them.  I usually use a slotted spoon and put them in a strainer.  Then get a new baking dish and put a small amount of sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Place the meatballs in the dish and pour more sauce on top.

Reduce the oven to 350*

And bake for another 20 minutes or so...I usually throw them in and make the pasta.  When the pasta is done, the meatballs are done.