Hello everyone,

As John is half Italian, I try to make a point to feed him Italian food ever so often. It is always an intimidating venture as he has had the privilege of growing up eating wonderful Italian cooking courtesy of his mom and Nonna (Italian Grandmother.) I have had the pleasure to sample Italian cuisine prepared by both these women, and alas, I am no match for these great cooks, but I do try my hardest to at least prepare something decent.

One thing I like to make to go with my tomato pasta sauce are meatballs. Meatballs are a wonderful thing. You make a ton at a time with not too much effort. This recipe uses about 3 lbs of meat and makes about 3 dozen meatballs. That’s a lot for one meal, so freeze them and then bust them out for pasta dinners.

Usually I go with a pretty basic meatball recipe, but I tried to change it up this time by combining beef with Italian sausage. This is what I got for you.

Another trick I used is courtesy of Chef Michael Smith. To make these meatballs extra moist, you soak your breadcrumbs in milk before adding. Just make sure you mix everything very nicely to avoid chunks of the breadcrumb mixture in your finished product.

So next time you’re making a tomato sauce for your pasta, try a batch of these meatballs! You can easily feed a large group of 6-8, or have leftover meatballs to freeze!

Bon appetit,

Julie

Click here for printable Word version of recipe:
Italian Sausage Meatballs

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Italian Sausage Meatballs

Makes about 3 dozen meatballs

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup milk
3 lbs ground meat, combination of ground Italian sausage and beef.
(I used a 50-50 split, with mild Italian sausage)
1 onion, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup parsley, minced
1 egg
1 tsp salt
½ tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp olive oil

If you use more beef then sausage, consider adding some dried thyme, basil and oregano.

DIRECTIONS:

Combine milk and breadcrumbs. Let sit until mixture softens.

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Make sure the breadcrumb/milk mixture is well broken up. Mix so everything is evenly incorporated.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll meatballs, make approx 1 ½ – 2 inches wide.

Bake for 20 minutes.