With holiday parties and sports parties in full swing, you need this quick and simple recipe in your quiver. These meatballs are delicious on their own or simmering in sweet ‘n’ sour sauce as appetizers. Your kids will love them with spaghetti.
And they’re awesome with this sauce I shared for mountain lion.
You’ll need breadcrumbs. You can dry some Italian bread you have lying around, or 5-8 slices of sandwich bread, and then crumble it. Or, you can also use saltines, Ritz crackers, or maybe tollhouse crackers. Whatever you’ve got on hand can work — heck, you can use crumbled Cheerios.
This takes 10-15 minutes to prep, depending on how fast you can make the balls. It cooks for 20, and it’ll make 30 to 50 meatballs.
What You Need
- 2 lbs ground meat (defrosted) — This meat should have fat in it; add a stick of butter if it doesn’t.
- 1/2 Cup shredded cheese — Romano, parmesian, or whatever you have. Crumble it small.
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic, about 5 cloves
- 1 Tablespoon parsley or cilantro, half that much if it’s dried
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 Cups breadcrumbs
- 1 Cup water
What You Do
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to blend the meat, eggs, cheese, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper. get mixed together really well.
Next, add the bread crumbs and get them mixed in really well. The crumbs absorb a lot of moisture and you don’t want them to absorb all the fat, so adding water keeps the meatballs moist. Add a little at a time. It should be moist, but it should be able to keep its form as a ball, too. If you add too much water, add more crumbs to soak it up.
Form balls about 1″ in diameter. A melon scoop might work, but you can just use your fingers, too. Line a cookie sheet with foil and bake them on the sheet, or on a rack over the sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F.
Drop these in sauce and enjoy. Bake them a little longer so they are more firm if you want to put them in a slow cooker on low with sauce drizzled over them as appetizers. You can freeze the extras and drop them in the air fryer to reheat.
