Braised Meatballs in Red Wine Gravy

By gvcathy

Ingredients

• 1 6-oz piece day-old french bread (generous 1/3 of 16-oz. loaf), crust on, cut into 8 pieces
• 1 C whole milk
• 1-3/4 lbs ground beef
• 2 large eggs
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 C chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried summer savory
• All purpose flour
• 2 T butter
• 1-1/2 tsp olive oil
• 2 C dry red wine
• 1/4 C tomato paste
• 3 C canned beef broth

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350. Combine bread pieces and whole milk in medium bowl, pressing on bread to submerge; let stand until milk is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Squeeze out most of milk from bread; discard milk. Place bread in large bowl. Add ground beef, eggs, finely chopped onion, Italian parsley, salt, pepper, and summer savory and mix well. Transfer meat mixture to food processor. Process until well blended and mixture looks pasty. For mixture into 1-3/4" meatballs (about 30). Bake meatballs for 20 - 25 minutes; set meatballs aside.

Dust meatballs with flour; shake off excess. Melt butter with oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add meatballs to skillet and saute until brown on all sides, about 3 minutes. Return all meatballs to skillet. Whisk wine and tomato paste in small bowl to blend. Add wine mixture to meatballs and bring to boil. Continue boiling until wine thickens slightly, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add broth, reduce heat to medium and simmer until flavors blend and gravy thickens, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with mashed potatoes.