The $10 Meatball

We had the best meatballs ever during our last trip to San Francisco, at a super delicious pizza place called Tony's Pizza Napoletana. It came as an appetizer - two fist-sized meatballs paired with different sauces including a tangy marinara and a pink mushroom sauce. The meat was moist, flavorful and seasoned to perfection. We still talk about this meatball from time to time - it was THAT delicious. So when Ray saw this recipe online, the title alone was convincing enough to give it a try: The Meatball Recipe to Conquer Others. The recipe calls for four blends of protein: beef, pork, veal and pancetta. Fresh herbs and aromatics are mixed in and the meatballs are baked low and slow in a tangy tomato sauce for 2 hours.



The only market we could think of that would stock veal was Whole Foods. Bad idea - we ended up spending $100 on all the ingredients. The recipe can make up to 10 fist-sized meatballs (or 25-30 small ones)- coming out to a whooping $10 per large meatball. But was it worth it? Absolutely.



The Meatball Recipe to Conquer Others

adapted from Esquire

Ingredients

1. 1 lb ground beef (80 percent lean/20 percent fat)
2. 1 lb ground pork
3. 1 lb ground veal
4. 1 lb pancetta or thick-sliced smoky bacon, finely minced
5. 2 whole eggs
6. ⅓ cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
7. ½ cup finely diced yellow onion
8. 8 garlic cloves, minced
9. ¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
10. 2 tbsp chopped oregano
11. 2 tbsp chopped rosemary
12. ⅓ cup fine, dry unseasoned bread crumbs
13. ½ cup whole milk
14. salt and pepper to taste
15. Tomato Sauce

For the meatball:

Combine ingredients 1 through 11 and mix well, kneading the mixture with your hands like dough.



Slowly add milk to bread crumbs, stirring until the mixture has the consistency of wet sand. Immediately add to the meat mixture, season with the salt and pepper, and mix well. To taste for seasoning: Heat a small amount of canola oil in a small pan. When it's hot — it will ripple in the pan — pinch off a bit of meat and fry in the oil. Remove with a spoon, taste, and correct seasoning, adding more salt if necessary. Refrigerate the meat mixture for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape meatballs. In a large skillet, heat about a quarter-inch canola oil until very hot. Working in batches, brown all sides of each meatball.



As they finish, transfer browned meatballs to a deep, oven -afe casserole. Cover meatballs with tomato sauce. (Don't skimp — they must be totally submerged.) Place in oven and bake until well done, about 1 ¾ to 2 hours. When done, they should feel firm to the touch, or an instant-read meat thermometer should read 160 degrees. Ours finished after 60 minutes so check on the meatballs periodically.

I Heart Yummy's Basic Tomato Sauce

For the tomato sauce, we opted for a more simple sauce to pair with the heavy meat balls. The cool thing about this recipe is that everything cooks all together in the pot so the fat and flavors of the meatballs mix right into the tomato sauce. We kept the sauce more mild and tangy for this reason.

Ingredients

• 1/2 large yellow onion, minced
• 5-7 cloves of garlic
• 3 cans (28 oz each) San Marzano crushed tomatoes
• 1 can tomato sauce
• ¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tbsp chopped oregano
• 2 tbsp thyme
• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• 1/2 cup sugar (a must!)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Saute the onions and garlic in oil until translucent. Throw in the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 15 minutes. It is now ready to be added to the meatballs and then baked for 1-2 hours.



We loved, loved, loved this meatball recipe! The meat was moist and flavorful. The tangy and sweet sauce helped curb the richness of the meat. We served the meatballs with toasted ciabatta (Spanish-style, rubbed with garlic oil and fresh tomato). The ciabatta holds up nicely against the sauce - it's sturdier than most breads and doesn't get too mushy, even with all the tomato sauce piled on top. Minature versions of this meatball would be great with spaghetti. While a $10 meatball is quite expensive, you can definitely take some liberties with purchasing the ingredients at less expensive supermarkets.