Making bite-sized meatballs takes a bit more time than traditional meat sauce, but it is well worth the effort. Moist and delicious, these meatballs can be served over pasta or used to make a meatball sandwich.
Ingredients – Meatballs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2lb ground veal
1 tsp ground oregano
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp seasoned Dijon mustard
1 tsp Kosher salt
Ingredients – Dredge
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Ingredients – Sauce
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
4 sprigs fresh thyme
3 to 4 cups water
1 tbsp Kosher salt
Heat a frying pan for a few minutes and then add the oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent (approximately 3 minutes). In a mixing bowl add the ground veal, cooked onion and garlic, oregano, bread crumbs, mustard, salt, Parmesan cheese and egg. Mix together well.
Make the flour dredge by seasoning the flour with the salt and pepper in a flat baking dish. Set the flour aside. Place a tablespoon full of the meat mixture into your palm. Rubbing both palms with the meat in the middle, make a 1” size round ball. Drop the ball into the flour mixture. Continue making balls until all the meat mixture is used up. Take the baking dish and move it from left to right to coat all the meatballs. If necessary, use a fork to turn over any meatballs that are not coated. Once finished, wash your hands thoroughly.
Heat the oil and butter in a pot and drop in half of the meatballs once heated. Ensure to leave some space between the meatballs so that they can be turned to brown on all sides. Remove the browned meatballs from the pot and continue with the remaining batch. In the meantime, melt the tomato paste and sugar in 1 cup of the water and set aside. Once all meatballs have been browned, return them all to the pot and pour in the tomato paste mixture. Add the salt and thyme and top with enough water to cover the meatballs. Allow to simmer until the water is reduced and a thick sauce remains. This should not take more than 40 minutes.
Serve with pasta topped with grated cheese or on a toasted ciabatta bun with cheese slices.
Makes approximately 40 meatballs.
Patataki 