ottawa foodies

my husband wants to make meatballs, but being vegetarian, i have no recipes to offer (nor will i make them for him). i'm going to check out my old cook's illustrated, but does anyone on here have a good recipe? something not too complicated. he will buy good meat from a butcher (probably saslove's on wellington) and is open to mixing different meats together.

i have looked at a few recipes online and they seem to call for cooking the meatballs in a lot of oil. is that typical?

btw, these will be served with pasta & tomato sauce, if that makes a difference.

thanks in advance.

Good meatballs are really, really easy. In addition to meat, just puree some onion, garlic, and whatever spices you think he'd like, along with an egg (or 2, depending on how many you are making)

Brown them in a frying pan, then put them in a covered pot in the oven for an hour to 90 minutes on 325F, with the secret sauce.

OK, here is the killer secret sauce - get ready for it! To do this nowadays I'd come up with my own, but this comes from some 15 years ago. 1 can of cranberry sauce mixed with 1 large bottle Heinz chili sauce! Mix the 2 together really well, then cook your meatballs it the sauce as per above.

I do both vegetarian and non stuff. I grew up working in an "old style "italian restaurant. Everything went by the bucket or handful--but my family tells me the adaptations are just fine. (sorry about the combo of metric and imperial measurements)
1/2 kg lean ground beef
1/2 kg ground pork
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
250 g good quality bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
salt & pepper to taste (so individual
fairly large handful of good quality ground parmesan
ground pepper-if extra needed
fresh chopped parsley
Gently mix. Form into meatballs of your size preference (1x1") work well.
They taste best cooked in tomato sauce but can be baked on a nonstick pan for about 20-25 minutes at 350 F, then added to sauce. Best not fried.

* 200g minced beef
* 200g minced pork
* ½ bunch flat leaf parsley
* A splash of white wine
* 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
* 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 3 tbsp fine breadcrumbs
* Milk, enough to cover breadcrumbs
* Plain floura:
* 2 tins chopped tomatoes
* 2 shallots, finely diced
* 3 cloves garlic, halved
* ½ red chilli, finely sliced
* 2 tbsp pitted green olives, drained
* Small bunch basil
* 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Olive oil

1. PreHeat the oven to 350

2. Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk.

3. Lightly fry the shallots, garlic and chilli for 2-3 minutes until soft. Deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine. Add the tomatoes along with the basil, oregano and finally the olives. Simmer to reduce.

4. While the tomato sauce is cooking, make up the meatballs: Into the mince add the parsley, parmesan, garlic and add soaked breadcrumbs, mix well. Season with a little salt and pepper.

5. Shape into walnut sized balls and lightly coat the meatballs in the flour and fry in hot olive oil until golden. (I normally use very little EVOO to fry the Meatball) Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce and bake in the oven.

I can vouch for the cranberries/chili sauce mix - simple, and does taste good. If you want to be even more "white trash" throw in 1 pkt of dried french onion soup mix. We have this with chicken thighs too. (no its not from scratch and ranks up there with the jello/cream of mushroom soup recipes of the 70s).

both recipes for the meatballs look good - be sure to use the half pork/half beef - that is the key to juicy meatballs.

If you want to do them with little oil, trying dropping the formed balls into boiling stock to cook them. I make a meatball soup this way and the leftover meatballs are so yummy and juicy!

DAvid Rocco had a show on last week all about meatballs, a couple vegetarian ones as well.

www.foodnetwork.ca

www.foodnetwork.ca

www.foodnetwork.ca

www.foodnetwork.ca

www.foodnetwork.ca

I will check out this thread...thanks!