Mar­vel­lous Meatballs

Use a mix­ture of ground beef and ground pork, if desired. You could thin plain yogurt with a lit­tle milk to get the same effect as but­ter­milk. Try this tasty option: Stir ¹⁄₃ cup raisins and ¹⁄₄ cup toasted pine nuts (toast nuts in a dry skil­let over low heat for about 8 min­utes or until golden brown) into ground meat mix­ture until well dis­trib­uted. I used the inside of a baguette for the bread paste with excel­lent results. You can use less or more oil for frying.

Two slices white bread, crusts removed, torn in pieces (about 1 ¹⁄₂ cups)

¹⁄₂ cup but­ter­milk or milk

1 lb/500g ground beef

1 large egg yolk

¹⁄₄ cup grated parme­san or romano cheese

¹⁄₃ cup chopped fresh parsley

³⁄₄ tsp kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp veg­etable oil

¹⁄₂ medium onion, chopped

Home­made or store­bought tomato sauce

In bowl, pour but­ter­milk over bread; let sit a few min­utes. With fork, stir into a thick paste.

Add bread paste to large bowl along with remain­ing ingre­di­ents except oil, onion and tomato sauce. Stir well to com­bine. Shape into balls about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches in diam­e­ter. Place on cookie sheet or cut­ting board. You should have about 15 meatballs.

Add oil to large heavy skil­let. Heat over medium-high heat until edge of a meat­ball siz­zles when placed in it. Add meat­balls in sin­gle layer, not crowd­ing skil­let. Cook, turn­ing at inter­vals, until well browned all over, about 8 min­utes. Drain on paper towels.

Add onion to skil­let. Cook over medium heat until nicely browned, about 5 min­utes. Add tomato sauce, scrap­ing up browned bits from bot­tom of skil­let. Cook until heated through. Add meat­balls. Cook a few min­utes or until heated through. Serve over pasta or mashed potatoes.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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