In a quest to add Even More Meat to an already delightful spread on Christmas Eve, I made a triple portion of these meatballs using a mix of the Cook's Illustrated recipe and the Marcella Hazan recipe. The real key to these is to get your 13-year-old niece to do all the work. Don't use veal, as it's too bland.
2 slices decent white bread (we used Pepperidge Farms potato bread)
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 lb ground beef
1/4 lb ground pork
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (we used Asiago because it was purchased by accident, worked fine)
2 Tbsp minced parsley
1 Tbsp minced onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
ground nutmeg
ground black pepper
Tear up the bread and combine it with the buttermilk in a large bowl. Mash it with a fork until it's a fairly even paste. Add all of the other ingredients to the bowl and mix with a fork at first, and then with your hands, until evenly combined. Use a light touch, as too much pressure will create hockey pucks instead of meatballs.
Shape the meatballs from the mix, using roughly 3 Tbsp of mix for a 1 1/2-inch meatball. Too small and they will be crunchy all the way through; too large and they will be gooey on the inside. Handle them too much at this stage, and you will again get hockey pucks.
Fry the meatballs in a skillet in about a 1/4 inch of nearly smoking hot vegetable oil, leaving space between the meatballs. Turn regularly to get them brown and crunchy on all sides. It takes about 6 minutes per batch.
2 slices decent white bread (we used Pepperidge Farms potato bread)
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 lb ground beef
1/4 lb ground pork
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (we used Asiago because it was purchased by accident, worked fine)
2 Tbsp minced parsley
1 Tbsp minced onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
ground nutmeg
ground black pepper
Tear up the bread and combine it with the buttermilk in a large bowl. Mash it with a fork until it's a fairly even paste. Add all of the other ingredients to the bowl and mix with a fork at first, and then with your hands, until evenly combined. Use a light touch, as too much pressure will create hockey pucks instead of meatballs.
Shape the meatballs from the mix, using roughly 3 Tbsp of mix for a 1 1/2-inch meatball. Too small and they will be crunchy all the way through; too large and they will be gooey on the inside. Handle them too much at this stage, and you will again get hockey pucks.
Fry the meatballs in a skillet in about a 1/4 inch of nearly smoking hot vegetable oil, leaving space between the meatballs. Turn regularly to get them brown and crunchy on all sides. It takes about 6 minutes per batch.
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