As promised, here is yet another great recipe for a fabulous dish we had at the Organic New York office Thanksgiving potluck on Friday, Nov. 19.  Madeleine Freind made an incredible meatball dish that everyone gobbled up.  Please see her recipe below – which is a riff on a recipe from the famous Rao’s restaurant.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground lean beef
½ pound ground veal
½ pound ground pork
2 large eggs
1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 ½ tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
½ small garlic clove, peeled and minced, optional
2 cups bread crumbs (see below instructions below)
2 cups lukewarm water
Salt (preferably Kosher or Sea Salt) and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup fine-quality olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine beef, veal, and pork in a large bowl.  Add eggs, cheese, parsley, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.  Using your hands, blend ingredients together.  Blend bread crumbs into meat mixture.  Slowly add water, 1 cup at a time, until the mixture is quite moist.
2. Shape meat mixture into balls (we usually make large, 2 ½- to 3-inch balls).
3. Place meatballs in a jelly roll type pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
4. Lower cooked meatballs into simmering Marinara Sauce (see Salsa Marinara Rao’s) or Sunday Gravy (see Rao’s Sunday Gravy) and cook for 15 minutes.  Serve over pasta or on their own. (NOTE: Madeleine prefers the Salsa Marinara from Rao’s but thinks any high-quality sauce will probably still taste pretty good)

To Make the Breadcrumbs:  for Rao’s style breadcrumbs, be sure to make your own. Using the highest quality Itallian bread you can find, allow it to dry for at least two days.  Then, grate, using a handheld grater or a food processor fitted with the metal blade.  Shake and push the bread crumbs through a medium strainer to get an even texture. 

Note:  In place of breadcrumbs, you can use stale Italian bread, white part only, which has been lightly soaked in lukewarm water.

Yield:  Makes 28 meatballs.

 Gail Scibelli