This is from Fine Cooking No.71 p.51 "Spaghetti & Meatballs", but without the marinara sauce recipe. Feel free to use the sauce of your choice.
The ingredients have been slightly modified (no veal, less olive oil) and the directions simplified. The nice thing about this recipe is that it creates (relatively) light tender meatballs compared to the more dense meat dominated ones.
Last time we made these it made 24 1½ in. - 2 in. diameter meat balls. We used half immediately and froze the other half.
| Quantity | Item |
|---|---|
| ¾ lb | ground beef or bison |
| ¾ lb | ground pork Italian sausage sweet or spicy |
| 1 T | kosher salt |
| ½ tsp | freshly ground black pepper |
| 2 | cloves of garlic |
| 2 | large eggs |
| 1 C | Parmigian Reggiano cheese, finely grated |
| 1½ C | plain dry breadcrumbs |
| 1 C | water |
| 1 T | fresh flatleaf parsely, chopped |
| 2+ T | olive oil for frying |
| 1 lb | dried spaghetti, fettucine, or other pasta |
| ¼ C | fresh basil, chopped |
In a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients (except for the pasta) with space for mixing, add all the meat, salt, pepper, garlic, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs and parsley. Using your hands mix it all into a relatively homogeneous mass. Then add the water and continue to mix until it is incorporated.
Prepare a surface to hold all the uncooked meatballs. Using your hands or a combination of a spoon and hands, scoop out enough mixture for a 1½ in. meatball (or one of your chosen size). It's a sticky mixture so the ball's shape will be an approximation of a sphere ;-). Place the meatball on the waiting surface and continue the process until all the mixture is used. This is a good time to do some cleanup.
Heat a 10" - 12" frying or braising pan over medium high heat and add the olive oil. When hot add as many meatballs as will comfortably fit, cooking them in batches. Brown one side and then turn and remove after that browns. Add more oil as necessary. We just brown them and then finish the cooking in the sauce on the stove, but you may wish to cook them through.
Cook the pasta as directed and drain. A favorite technique is to put the empty pasta pot back on the burner on medium high, add a couple of Ts of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and then the drained pasta. Mix thoroughly and remove to a serving dish. You can serve the sauce/meatballs and pasta separately or mix in the kitchen and serve all together. Garnish with the basil.