Bonnies Italian Meatballs Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Toss bread crumbs, Romano cheese, garlic, parsley, black pepper, red pepper, and egg together in a bowl; mix in beef gently with your hands. Form beef mixture into meatballs roughly 1 1/4 inches in diameter; place on the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes; turn meatballs and bake until no longer pink at the center, about 5 minutes more. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Steps:

• Combine ground pork, Italian sausage, ground sirloin, and ground chuck in a large bowl. Mix them with your hands until thoroughly combined.
• Soak bread chunks in chicken broth in a bowl until completely soft. Combine garlic and parsley in a mini chopper or food processor and grind to a fine paste. Squeeze the excess broth out of the bread, reserving the broth in a bowl, and add the bread to the meats along with the garlic and parsley paste. Gently mix in beaten eggs and grated Pecorino Romano cheese with your hands until fully incorporated into the meat mixture. If the mixture seems dry, pour in some of the reserved chicken broth.
• Pinch off golf ball-sized pieces of the meat mixture and roll them into meatballs, taking care not to pack them too tightly, and set them on a baking tray. Depending on how big you make them, you should end up with about 30 meatballs.
• Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in two or three batches, brown the meatballs on all sides and drain on paper towels. If you're adding them to a pot of sauce, you may undercook them slightly, as they will finish cooking in the sauce.

Steps:

• In a saute pan over medium-high heat, cook the diced onions and canola oil until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Place the ground sausage, beef, breadcrumbs, cream, cheese, mustard, oregano, thyme, eggs and some salt and pepper in large mixing bowl. Add the sauteed onions to the bowl and mix the ingredients by hand, until completely incorporated.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Form the meatball mixture by hand into balls slightly larger than a golf ball, repeat for the remaining meat. Place all the meatballs on a sheet pan and cook until fully cooked throughout, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Drain all excess grease and let the meatballs cool. Serve alone with some marinara sauce, with spaghetti and marinara or in a meatball sub sandwich.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Place the bread in a large bowl, cover with water and let soak until saturated, about 1 minute. Pour off the remaining water, wring out the bread, and tear it into tiny pieces (place back into bowl).
• To the bread, add all of the ingredients, except for the dried breadcrumbs (which you will add in last, using more or less as necessary).
• Using your hands, combine all the ingredients together. Form the mixture into golf ball size meatballs.
• Lay out your meatballs on 2 rimmed baking sheets and bake for 25 minutes in a 325F oven.
• At this point, you can cool the meatballs and hold them in the refrigerator for as long as a couple of days or freeze them for the future.
• Serve 3 meatballs per person with a healthy helping of your favorite red tomato sauce (homemade or store bought). Top each portion with a fluffy mountain of grated cheese. Buon appetito!

Steps:

• MAKE THE SPAGHETTI SAUCE: In a large pot, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until onion is light brown. Add the tomato puree, tomato sauce, water, parsley, salt, pepper, oregano, Italian herbs, marjoram and bay leaf. Stir with a wooden spoon, and bring to a boil, then turn to simmer, cover the pot and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, prepare the meatballs.
• MAKE THE MEATBALLS: Note: do not brown the meatballs! In a small bowl, place the wheat bread and the 1/4 cup of water, let it soak while you combine the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the ground beef, 2 eggs, parmesan cheese, parsley, wine, garlic, minced onion flakes, salt and pepper, basil, oregano, and the baking soda, then add the wet bread to the meat, tearing it into tiny pieces. Mix very gently with your hands; DO NOT over mix, as it makes the meatballs tough. Dampen your hands to form the meatballs. Make balls about the size of a golf ball. The recipe should make 20 to 24 meatballs. Put them on a plate, cover and refrigerate while the sauce simmers.
• COOK THE SPAGHETTI: Put on a large pot to boil water, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and salt. Cook it the way you like it. Some people like it al dente, others like it more done. When the spaghetti is cooked, drain, don't rinse, cover and keep hot until the meatballs have finished cooking.
• COOKING THE MEATBALLS: When the sauce has simmered for one and one-half hours, then take a long handled spoon and carefully drop one meat ball at a time into the sauce. Do not disturb the meatballs or the sauce while it simmers uncovered for 10 minutes. Stir very gently to make sure they are not sticking to the bottom of the pot, and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes more.
• Cook's Tip: You can serve the spaghetti and meatballs in a pasta dish as my photo depicts. Sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan cheese. We like red pepper flakes with ours. Keep out a few meatballs and sauce for great meatball sandwiches the next day! Enjoy!
• Slow Cooker: I have also prepared this dish successfully in the slow cooker which runs a little hotter than a crockpot.

Steps:

• Place your preferred meat into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat eggs until smooth. Add half measured seasoned bread crumbs and half of beaten eggs to meat and mix thoroughly. Add the remainder of all measured ingredients including the eggs and bread crumbs. You may need to mix everything with your hands to make sure that all ingredients are well incorporated into the meat. The consistency of the meat should be wet, not sticky or pasty. If the meat wants to stick to your hands while rolling a meatball then you should add another egg, one extra egg won't hurt the end result no matter the amount of meat being used.
• Once you have a wet consistency of meat cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours(overnight is best).
• To prepare meatballs have a small bowl of lukewarm water handy to keep the meatballs from sticking to your hands while rolling. Scoop meat with a tablespoon to keep size consistent and timing for frying. When rolled into a ball the meat should be about the size of a golf ball. Fry meatballs in a 12 inch skillet in olive oil. Cook on medium heat for 2 minutes per side or until browned on both sides. Please note that the fry time is one quarter the time of being fully cooked since these meatballs finish cooking in a 2 hour tomato sauce. When all meatballs fried drop into your tomato sauce.
• Note: If you prefer you may bake the meatballs as well. Place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until nicely browned. Again the cook time is for meatballs that are halfway cooked since they again go into a tomato sauce for final cooking. Also ground turkey will cook faster than pork and or beef so be sure to test the doneness of the ground turkey. Any over cooking before dropping your meatballs into your sauce will result in dry over cooked meatballs.