Meatballs!!

I may have mentioned in earlier posts that I am a pescatarian, which means that I don't eat red meat, pork or chicken, but I do eat fish and seafood. Occasionally I play around with meat for my fiance Dani though! I had ground meat at home in the freezer and was debating what to do with it? Meatloaf, hamburgers, chili? Finally I decided to make meatballs!

I started off by cutting up an onion, half a clove of garlic, a red bell pepper and a small green pepper. I sauteed all of these ingredients with salt and added half a cup of white wine when the veggies started to sweat. After 5 minutes on a low flame I added 4 fresh cut tomatoes and a spoonful of curry. After 15 minutes on a low flame I sprinkled some basil, oregano, fresh parsley and black pepper. When the sauce seemed done I added a small can of diced tomatoes. If you have enough fresh tomatoes to use, I'd suggest skipping the can of tomato, but it's your call! Continue cooking the sauce for 10 more minutes, in the meantime prepare the meatballs!

To make the meatballs. Leave the meat in the fridge for 24 hours to defrost if frozen. Put the meat in a bowl and add black pepper, fresh parsley, an egg, salt and the milk soaked break. The "bread mixture" is the key to making delicious, moist meatballs! To make this, soak some day old bread (you can use Italian bread, a roll, etc. but I would not suggest sandwich bread) in milk for 5 minutes. Squeeze out the milk and add the milk soaked bread to the bowl. Mix all of the ingredients with a spoon. When mixed well, make balls with the meat, trying to stay consistent with the size.


After making the meatballs, place them in pan with a thin layer of olive oil and brown. Make sure to keep turning the meatballs so that they are brown and toasty all the way around. Doing this keeps the flavor in the meatballs, keeps them from drying out and keeps the shape too! Remember the point isn't to cook the meatballs, but brown them. Next, place the meat balls in the tomato sauce and turn the flame down and let cook slowly for 30-45 minutes.


When done serve your yummy food over pasta and sprinkle with parmessan cheese or eat just as in! Dani loved this and I am sure you will too!