Meatballs

Growing up, whenever we had spaghetti, it was in a meat sauce. Meatballs were a special treat and came from Costco in a frozen bag. Whatever the inital reason was for doing so, I just assumed it was because meatballs were hard. Or time consuming. Or too much bother. Recently, the hubby and I got it into our heads to make some. I looked up several recipes and braced myself for a long wait for dinner. Psh, the whole thing took about 30 minutes. That's weeknight fast. I have no idea why it never occurred to me before that the reason spaghetti and meatballs is such a staple is because it is easy.

Makes about a dozen meatballs

Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 medium onion
garlic
pepper
basil
1/3 cup water

Directions
DICE onion
MIX beef, bread crumbs, cheese, onion, garlic, pepper, and basil in medium bowl
ADD water small bits at a time until desired consistency is reached (moist and able to stick together)

SHAPE meat mixture into balls by hand.



ADD to sauce
SIMMER over medium-low heat for 20 minutes

Enjoy!

My Thoughts
1. These were easy! And delicious. We will definitely be making these again in the future.

2. We used regular sandwich bread and rather large "crumbs", so there were some distinctly bready bits in the meatballs. If this isn't your thing, make sure to tear your bread into smaller pieces. I'm sure you could even process everything in a food processor to get a more even consistency.

3. I would suggest marinating your meat in a tomato sauce (either some of the same marinara that you will cook in or some canned tomato sauce with garlic, salt, and pepper). The outside of the meatballs were outstanding, but the center (which hadn't soaked up any sauce) was a bit boring. Alternatively, you could make tiny meatballs so that the sauce can reach the center.