The old dog learns a new trick: Meatballs

The regular readers of this blog know that I love meatballs, and that the classic meatball recipe I use, is one I am very proud of. And I can say, honestly, that they seem to be well received, by just about everyone. I never seem to make enough of them.

BUT.... "you don't have to keep up, you have to keep open," as my idol Anna Madrigal said in "Michael Tolliver Lives." And if you haven't read that book, go and get it and read it now. Or, after you make these meatballs.

Inspiration for cooking should come to you from everywhere. Restaurants. Television. Magazines. Even if it's a magazine that you don't read normally, or that you would not expect to provide a good recipe. Such is the case here. For reasons that I surely do not know, we have a subscription to "Details" magazine. It takes me about 6 minutes to read the magazine. "Read" is probably too kind a word. Trash, trash, trash. But hey, it's summer. So I was leafing through it last week, and there was a recipe for what was called "The Ultimate Meatball." I took a look at it. Hmmmm. Nothing too complicated, but it did not involve tomato sauce or poaching them in tomatoes. Now, every time I have made a non-tomato based meatball, I have been disappointed. Hard, dry, and not tasty. But as I read through this recipe, I thought "this could work." Let's give it a try.

Now, as is my wont, I changed the recipe as I went along. I will tell you where I did, and you can go back to the original, or you can use mine, or, best of all, make your own variation. That's how the art evolves.

The recipe called for 2 pounds of ground chuck. I took that, plus a pound of ground veal. We've been through the "cute animals" issue here, many times, so if you are not going to use the veal, don't use it. I'm going to give proportions for three pounds of meat though, so use another pound of ground beef.

Get about a quarter pound of prosciutto, or pancetta, and grind it. How do you grind it? Put it in the food processor and pulse. You don't need stuff that is really, REALLY fine, but do your best. Dump that into the meat, together with a scant (and I mean SCANT) tablespoon of salt. Mine were just on the edge of too salty, using the full tablespoon the recipe called for. Add some red hot pepper flakes. How much? Well, this is up to you. The recipe called for 1.5 teaspoon of the stuff. I have INCENDIARY red hot pepper, so I used just half a teaspoon. The recipe then calls for a tablespoon of ground fennel seeds. I like the play of whole seeds, so that's what I used. Grind them if you want (but know it's very hard to find preground fennel). You also need a tablespoon of fresh oregano leaves. THIS I found very interesting, because most cooks will tell you that you should use dried oregano, instead of fresh. But I went to our roof, got some fresh oregano, and in the fashion of my friend Kevin, pulled off the leaves, one by one. You also need a nice handful of parsley leaves, the flat ones, chopped. 2/3 cup of bread crumbs, whatever type you like, and a cup of ricotta cheese. PLEASE USE GOOD CHEESE. then add 3 large eggs (the recipe called for extra large. If t hat's what you've got, use them).

You will gather from this that you need a really big bowl. You do. Now, get your hands in here, and mix things up until it's about as uniform as you can get it. Chances are, you're going to find little "globs" of ricotta regardless of how much you mix, and that's fine.

Most recipes for meatballs tell you to handle them gently when you form the balls. This recipe said to pack them tight. I disregarded that, and used my standard way of handling them as little as possible. They should have about two tablespoons of meat per ball. Measure the first one, shape it, and you'll be fine. Put them in a greased (olive oil, please) baking dish. I used pyrex, you can use that or ceramic, but don't use metal, and then bake them at 450, for 15 minutes.

Honestly, I had my doubts about 15 minutes, but these were bordering on overcooked when I was done. Next time, I'll bake them for less, because I like them rarer. Again, do as you like in terms of timing.

You will see a lot of fat and liquid come off of this when they bake. Let them cool, and use a slotted spoon to remove them to a container. You'll get about 50.

We ate these today (not ALL of them), in pasta, with heirloom cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. You don't need me to tell you how to make that dish, and I won't. But do make the meatballs, and then do me one better and vary the recipe. I really want to know what you do with them.