My Grandmother's Meatballs

Season: All

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Like most Italian families we had a love affair with food. Every Sunday starting with Auntie Ann who would be the first to arrive with large brown bags of crusty Sicilian bread and bagels, still warm. I would awaken by the rich aromatic scent of my grandmother's Sunday gravy (this is what we called sauce in Brooklyn ). It was the beginning of an all day gathering at the table of macaroni, meatballs and poker.

Yields 10-16, depending on size.

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

1 cup finely chopped parsley

1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese

11/2 tsp sea salt

3 slices GF white bread (crust removed)

1/2 cup milk (to soak bread)

4 cloves garlic ,minced

3 eggs

olive oil, for frying

Soak the crustless bread in the milk for a few minutes. Gently squeeze the milk from the bread.

Discard the milk.

Mix all the ingredients well, including the now moist bread broken up, in a large bowl. Adjust salt to taste.

When ready to make meatballs ,have a small bowl of water to gently dip hands in when making a ball. Make the balls to desired size.

Heat a large skillet on medium to high heat. Cast iron is great if you have one. Make sure the meatballs aren’t touching, so they have room to brown. You probably will do this in two batches.

Brown both sides. You will know when they are ready to turn when they release from the pan easily, about 3-4 minutes on each side.

Line a plate with paper towels, and place browned meatballs to get rid of excess oil.

Add more oil to pan if you think you need it.

The meatballs are ready to be dropped into the Sunday sauce . Of course other days of the week are fine too.

Red Sauce recipe to follow.