My Mom’s Meatball Recipe

Name: My Mom's Meatball Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1 lb. ground beef; 1 lb. ground pork (or go with all beef. That's up to YOU.); 1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs; 1 cup grated parmesan cheese; 1 tbsp. dried basil (or 2 tbsp. chopped fresh); 2 tbsp dried parsley (or 4 tbsp. chopped fresh); 1/2 tbsp salt; 1/2 tbsp. black pepper; 2 eggs; 1/2 cup water; 1/2 tbsp. red pepper flakes (optional)

Ages ago when I was a little kid sometimes on Sunday my Mom would make “Spaghetti and Meatballs”. She never had time during the week because she worked in Newark, NJ and didn’t get home to our house in North Arlington until about six. As my sister, Loretta, aka “Woogie” and I got older we would be helping. This was how my Mom taught us to make Meatballs.

Ingredients

These amounts are for 6-8 servings. If you want different servings amounts scroll down to the recipe card that is below this posting. There you can change the number of servings and it will change all of the amounts of the ingredients to what is needed for the number of servings that you have chosen. Also you can switch the amounts to metric

Marinara sauce half this recipe or get about 3 qts. of the ready made marinara sauce off the shelf at at your grocery store
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. dried basil or 2 tbsp. chopped fresh
2 tbsp. dried parsley or 4 tbsp. chopped fresh
1/2 tbsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. black pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes – optional

And here is how to make your Meatball Recipe

Get your marinara sauce started or in a large pot. Ot, put the sauce that you bought in a large pot. Remember, you are going to add the meatballs to the pot so it has to be big enough to handle the sauce and the meatballs.

Put the chopped beef and pork in a big bowl.

Add all the other ingredients and mix it all together. Woogie and I used our hands because it was just more fun that way.

Our mom used to form the meatballs by rolling a chunk of the mix in her hands then frying them in a skillet to get a crust on the outside so that they would be less likely to break up while cooking in the sauce. Now-a-days I set the oven at 400°F, scoop the meatballs with an ice cream scoop and put them on to a cookie sheet.

8-10 minutes and they are browned on the outside.

Simmer in a pot or sauté pan covered with some of your good Simple Marinara Sauce. Stir them around about every ten minutes, being careful not to break them up. When there is oil floating on the top of the sauce cook them for another 10 minutes and they are done.

Here it is with Linguini instead of spaghetti. Sorry Mom.

Of course some good Chianti and some homemade bread hot out of the oven. We also had some Caprese Salad to round things out.

Bob Appetit!!

AND, put the extras in zip bags in the freezer so they will be ready for you to team them up with some of your marinara sauce from the pantry or freezer for a weeknight, nuke it, no brainer.

Here is another easy meatball recipe for you

Try some Meatballs Parmigiana