These meatballs have great flavor and texture and we find them very utilitarian. We put them in spaghetti, or serve with a sauce (white, brown or sweet & sour) over rice.
3 cloves of garlic
¼ c oil
1 lb ground beef
¼ c grated Parmesan
9 crushed saltine crackers
½ t salt
¼ t black pepper
¼ t oregano
½ t basil
1 T parsley
¼ c water
1 egg
1 t tomato paste
Heat a small skillet over medium high heat. Add 3 unpeeled garlic cloves and toast until skins are spotty brown, about five minutes. Remove from heat, peel, mince, and set aside.
In a big bowl combine meat, garlic, Parmesan, crackers, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and parsley. Mix lightly with fingers. In a small bowl, whisk water and egg together with tomato paste. Add egg mixture to meat mixture, mix lightly with fingers.
Divide into 24 balls. Cook in batches in an oiled heavy skillet over medium-high heat until browned.
Alternatively you could place meatballs in a single layer on a cooking sheet and cover with a sheet of aluminum foil. Place in a 350° oven for ?? minutes or until meat is cooked through. Baking results in a softer texture, with more uniform browning and better retains the meatball shape.
4 comments:
look good. would you cook them first before freezing or freeze and then cook? probably cook first, right?
Yes, I'd cook them before freezing. Doing it the other way around would probably break up the meatball a lot more.
i made these yesterday and they were in fact, "incredibly good." we baked them for 20 minutes and cut into one and it appeared done. so of course we had to eat it. we froze the remaining for quick add-ins to pasta.
argh. forgot to mention the things i did differently.
because i usually just keep bottled garlic on hand, i didn't do that first paragraph. and instead of using tomato paste (which i (1) didn't have and (2) probably wouldn't have opened just for one measly teaspoon), i used ketchup.
since i already said that they were incredibly good, the changes didn't alter the taste too horribly.
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