New Meatball Recipes

cooks.com, i love this website, everytime i want to cook something new or need a reciepe i just click on it. They have lots of great recipes. Good luck, hope you like it!
A.!

Hi R. - I saw designer Michael Kors' make these on the Martha Stewart show last week and they talked about how moist and delicious they are. Let me know how they are. I plan to make them! The Rao's sauce recipe is below too.

This recipe for Frankie's Meatballs comes from "Rao's Cookbook," by Frank Pellegrino. Rao's is one of Michael Kors' favorite restaurants in Manhattan.

Ingredients
Makes 14 to 18 meatballs
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 1/2 cloves garlic
2 large eggs
1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups plain dry bread crumbs
2 cups water, room temperature
1 cup olive oil
Cooked Pasta , (optional)
Rao's Marinara Sauce
Directions
In a large bowl, combine beef and pork using your hands. Mince 1/2 clove garlic and add to meat mixture along with the eggs, cheese, and parsley; season with salt and pepper. Continue mixing with your hand until well combined. Add bread crumbs and mix well. Add water, 1 cup at a time, and continue mixing until mixture is quite moist.
Shape mixture into 2 1/2-to-3-inch balls. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Smash remaining clove of garlic with the back of a knife and add to skillet. Cook until lightly browned and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon and discard. Working in batches, add meatballs to skillet. Cook until browned and cooked through, turning, about 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.
Meanwhile, bring marinara sauce to a boil in a large nonreactive saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer and add meatball. Let meatballs cook in sauce about 20 minutes; serve immediately with pasta, if desired.
First published: March 2007

Rao's Marinara Sauce MSLO-RECIPE Video This great recipe is from "Rao's Cookbook," by Frank Pellegrino.

Ingredients
Makes 7 cups
Four 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes with basil, preferably from San Marzano
1/2 cup olive oil
6 tablespoons minced onion
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
12 leaves fresh basil, torn (optional)
Pinch of dried oregano
Directions
Remove tomatoes from can and place in a large bowl, reserving juices. Crush tomatoes using your hands; remove and discard the hard core from stem end, and any skin and tough membrane; set aside.
Place oil in a large, nonreactive saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion, and cook until soft and just beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic, and cook until softened, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and reserved juices; season with salt. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to low and simmer until slightly thickened, about 1 hour.
Stir in basil, if using, oregano, and season with pepper; continue cooking 1 minute more. Remove from heat and serve.

LINK:

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc...

In case you did not want to make them Foster Farms sells an awesome Turkey Meat ball Italian flavor! It is awesome and moist. My daughter loves them! They sell them at safeway by the turkey meat! They are premade you just warm them up in the oven. Good luck.

R. ~ Try the food network, see what they have, also check out marthastewart.com she has really great ideas. I have a sauce recipe and a meatball recipe, but they are over 100 years old passed down from my husband's Italian aunts, so probably not a good idea for me to share them; however, whenever I want to make something different yet the same, I search marthastewart.com; the foodnetwork.com; the barefoot contessa at food network and of course, emeril lagasse. Emeril's recipes are what I would call "difficult" and I cook all the time. The barefoot contessa has great "medium" recipes to follow and she makes such great food. The food network has all sorts of "easy" less complicated recipes so between the three of them, you can definitely find something. Good luck with your family dinner, I'm sure it will be a success.

L.

Hi R.,

Try adding chicken broth to your meatballs or add in some pork sausage to make it moist. A great website for recipes and even photos of the recipe is: www.recipezaar.com I use this website a lot and another good one is www.kraftfoods.com. Have fun!

Well, I always make them with like 3/4 ground beef then 1/4 sausage,lots of garlic, onion, eggs, fresh parsley, of course salt n pepper, a little sauce in the meatball, bake them in the oven. Then when your cooking your sauce on low, throw the meatballs in there. They'll flavor up the sauce and keep the meatballs very moist, especially if you cook in the sauce all day. Most grocery stores have that yummy flavored sausage too, like jalpeno sausage- mix that with the ground beef and that will give it a little kick.

If you don't HAVE to make them home-made, Jenny-O makes VERY yummy Turkey Meatballs. I would buy the frozen Meatballs and make your own sauce. People are always impressed with a yummy, non-jarred sauces.

Here's my Spaghetti sauce recipe:

1 lg can crushed tomatoes (I think 29oz)
1 md can Italian style stewed tomato (about 15oz)
1 md Onion, diced
2 Bell peppers diced large (I use 1 green, 1 yellow)
2 cloves Garlic, pressed or diced
1 Zuccini, shredded
1 Carrot, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan (sp?)
1 lb ground beef (or sausage, ground turkey, ground pork, or combanation of any of them)

Brown meat, onions, and garlic together in large skillet. When almost done add bell peppers. When peppers have started to soften (not all the way, as you're still going to cook them more in the sauce) drain meat mixture

In a large sauce (or stew) pan pour cans of tomatoes, meat mixture, and shredded veggies. Bring to and keep at a simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add Parmesan and stir until all sauce looks the same. (This will slightly discolor your sauce, but tastes great.)

Serve with cooked pasta, fried eggplant, Spagetti Squash (actual squash you can buy that when cooked looks like thin spaghetti) or any thing else you like to use sauce for.

A few side notes: you can leave out the meat all together if you want and it still tastes great. I often add diced eggplant to the sauce, but don't do this unless you KNOW the family likes eggplant, as it does change the flavor of the sauce. I also add mushrooms during the last 5 minutes it simmers. I also add banana squash some times, and often "clean out" my produce drawer and toss in anything that I think would taste good with the sauce flavors.

I hope this helps~ J.

Hi R.,

I have a great and easy recipe for home made spaghetti sauce (no meat balls), it's so yummy. Everyone loves it. I'd make the spaghetti sauce and then add Costco's frozen meatballs to the sauce in a big crock pot if I were you. Costco's meatballs are really good.....

I can fax you the recipe or send it through the mail. It's too long to type up in this message.

Let me know, and good luck.
E. Moreno
www.WomenOnAMission.com

Hey R.. I found the best way to cook meatballs was in the oven! Use good sirloin burger and mix with pork or turkey (a little bit drier) sausage, add an egg, salt, pepper (ground) and some oregano (about 1 tbls.). I usually use one lb burger, 1/2 pound sausage and one egg. Then roll into balls and cook in 350 degree oven. I usually undercook them because when I make my sauce, I put them in the sauce and they cook more.

Spaghetti sauce (straight from an Italian family in New York):

crushed garlic to taste ( I like quite a bit usually about 2tbls.)
One large yellow onion (rough chop)
1 large can Hunt's Tomato Sauce (or Contadina, don't use the cheap ones, you can really tell the difference)
2 small cans tomato paste (do not use the "italian" blend, just straight tomato paste)
Basil (to taste, about 2 tbls.)
Oregano (to taste, about 2 tbls.)
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup red wine (or to taste) (make sure it is a good wine, don't use the cheap stuff, I like to use Kendall Jackson)

Saute onion in extra virgin olive oil until clear (use low to medium heat as you do not want the onion to caramelize or the garlic to stick). Add garlic and stir until it starts to smell yummy. Add sauce and paste. Stir well. Stir in two tomato sauce cans full of water. Add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Lower heat until the sauce simmers slowly (it should "pop"). Add meatballs and let cook until sauce is thick. Usually this takes about 4 to 5 hours. Make sure you do not cook too quickly as it will stick to bottom of pan and burn!

This takes time but is well worth it. I have been making this sauce for about 25 years and it is always a hit with my family.

I like to substitute chicken or italian sausage for the meatballs, very yummy.

Good luck.