Buvette Meatballs

By stancec44

Double Tomato Sauce Recipe. These meatballs freeze beautifully in their sauce, so feel free to double the recipe and stop some away for a rainy day. Remember that mini meatballs are great for cocktail parties.
From 'Buvette / The Pleasure of Good Food'

Ingredients

• Tomato Sauce (see separate recipe in Sauces under Buvette Tomato Sauce)
• 1/4 c. dried currents
• 2 Tbsp Sherry vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, peeled & finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 Tbsp. fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley
• 3 c. homemade fresh bread crumbs
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1/2 lb. ground pork
• 1/2 lb. ground veal
• 1/4 lb. ground beef
• 1/4 lb. ground mortadella
• 1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted
• Pinch red chili flakes
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 c. finely grated Parm
• 2 lg. eggs, beaten
• Flour for dredging
• Oil for frying

Preparation

Step 1

In a large pot, bring the tomato sauce to a simmer and keep it warm over low heat. Meanwhile, put the currants and sherry vinegar in a small bowl and cover them with warm water. Let the currants soak for 10 minutes, drain and set aside.

Warm the olive oil in a lg. sauce pan over med. heat. Add the onion, garlic, basil and parsley and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, put the bread crumbs in a large bowl with the milk and stir to combine so that the mixture is nice and soft. Add all of the ground meats and the cooled aromatic mixture, along with the drained currants, pine nuts, chili flakes, oregano, nutmeg, salt, pepper, cheese and eggs.

Generously coat the surface of a lg. baking sheet with flour. To form the meatballs, grab a handful of the mixture and squeeze it to allow for some of the meat to escape from the top of your hand just beside your thumb. This squeezing will create wonderfully rustic, not too perfectly round meatballs that you can allow to simply fall to the baking sheet as you make them. This method will naturally portion the meatballs and keep you from overhanding them, which is what causes tough meatballs.

Give the baking sheet a shake, allowing the meatballs to roll around and coat themselves in the flour. A meatball that is not necessarily smooth, round and uniform will have a delicious crunch surface with dimples, which will hold more sauce.

Set a large sauce pan over med. heat and coat it with a shallow layer of oil. Add enough meatballs to fit in a single, uncrowded layer and fry until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain and continue frying off the meatballs, in batches, until you've browned them all.

Carefully transfer the meatballs to the simmering sauce and finish cooking them in the sauce for 20 minutes.