Description
Joanna Gaines’ meatballs blend comfort and flavor from her Texas kitchen. Hearty ingredients and simple techniques create a memorable meal that brings families together around the dinner table.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 lb (454 g) ground beef
- 0.5 lb (227 g) ground veal
- 0.5 lb (227 g) ground pork
- 1 cup freshly grated romano cheese
- 2 eggs
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1.5 tbsps (22.5 ml) chopped italian flat leaf parsley
- 2 cups stale italian bread, crumbled
- 1.5 cups (355 ml) lukewarm water
- 1 cup (237 ml) olive oil
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Meat Preparation: In a large bowl, thoroughly mix ground beef, veal, and pork until uniformly blended, creating a rich and complex protein foundation.
- Seasoning Integration: Fold in Romano cheese, eggs, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper, ensuring even distribution throughout the meat mixture for balanced flavor profiles.
- Bread Incorporation: Crumble stale bread into fine fragments and gently fold into the meat blend, adding moisture and creating a tender, delicate texture.
- Moisture Calibration: Gradually introduce lukewarm water, stirring carefully to maintain meat structure, blending until the mixture achieves a cohesive yet malleable consistency.
- Shaping and Forming: Using gentle hand motions, craft uniform spherical meatballs, applying light pressure to bind ingredients without compressing the meat excessively.
- Skillet Preparation: Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium temperature, creating an optimal golden-brown cooking environment with adequate surface coverage.
- Browning Process: Carefully place meatballs into the skillet, allowing sufficient spacing for even heat distribution and achieving a perfectly caramelized exterior.
- Cooking Completion: Rotate meatballs periodically, cooking for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and thoroughly cooked, ensuring interior temperature reaches food-safe levels.
- Finishing Touch: Transfer meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate to absorb excess oil, allowing slight cooling before serving with your preferred tomato sauce and accompaniments.
Notes
- Meat Ratio Matters: Use a blend of ground beef, veal, and pork for rich, complex flavor and tender texture.
- Bread Technique: Stale bread acts as a moisture binder, creating incredibly soft and juicy meatballs without dense heaviness.
- Water Wisdom: Add lukewarm water gradually to achieve perfect meat consistency – too little makes dry meatballs, too much creates mushy texture.
- Gentle Handling Crucial: Handle meat mixture delicately when mixing and forming meatballs to prevent tough, compressed protein structure.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dinner, Appetizer, Snacks
- Method: Sautéing
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 5
- Calories: 500
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 600 mg
- Fat: 35 g
- Saturated Fat: 10 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 20 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 30 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 25 g
- Cholesterol: 150 mg