With my husband’s Italian heritage, meatballs are near and dear to our hearts. After lots of experimentation to make the best, classic meatballs that are not dry, we’ve discovered that ricotta cheese does the trick. We also started taking a small piece of the meatball mixture and cooking it for 30 seconds in the microwave just to taste for seasoning. We’ve had too many mishaps where our meatballs are under seasoned and once they’re cooked, there’s nothing you can do about it. Here’s our recipe for our favorite meatballs.
Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs ground beef (80/20)
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
about 3 teaspoons sea salt
basic marinara sauce
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat olive oil in a medium pan and sauté onions and garlic until soft, about 7 minutes. Set aside and let cool. In a large bowl, combine beef, ricotta cheese, cooled onion mixture, parsley, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and eggs. Mix with your hands until all ingredients are blended well. Test for seasoning (see above for our microwave trick) and adjust as needed. Then form 1” meatballs and place them on a baking sheet. Make sure they do not touch so they cook all the way around. Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes. Remove them from the oven and put them into the heated marinara sauce. Serve with pasta or on their own with additional grated parmesan.
