STEPS 4 INGREDIENTS 6 TIME 10 MINS (to prepare)
It’s not strictly a pasta dish, but you might find this homemade meatball recipe useful if you’re looking to use beefy balls with an alternative pasta sauce, or to bolster an alternative meat-feast lasagna.
As this recipe demonstrates, any fool can make these beauties!
You just need 6 ingredients, 10 minutes to prepare the balls, and 20-30 minutes to cook them up (depending on what you’re having them with).
Here are some ideas…
• Cook up these balls in a classic tomato sauce – then combine with spaghetti or any sauce-friendly short pasta
• Use this Italian meatball recipe as practice for when you tackle this beef lasagna recipe
• Or maybe you fancy another sauce? Check out the pasta sauces here.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
500g/17oz minced/ground beef
2 eggs
100g/3.5oz crusty bread (a little stale if possible – but not mouldy!)
Approx. 35g/1.2oz breadcrumbs
Salt
Parmesan cheese
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Another larger bowl
STEP 1 – Let’s get this homemade meatball recipe rolling…
Hack the bread into large chunks and pop into a large bowl full of room temperature water to soak.
When is it soaked? When you can squeeze the bread and see it squiggling through your fingers! (This usually takes just 5 mins).
STEP 2 – While the bread is soaking, throw the egg, the ground beef, 2 teaspoons of salt, and a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan into your mixing bowl.
STEP 3 – The bread is probably well soaked by now, so squeeze this like you would a sponge to drain it. Really try to get as much moisture out as you can!
Add this messy bread to the mixing bowl and get busy mixing it all together with your hands.
Mix for a good 3-5 minutes, until all the ingredients are well combined.
Now to get its consistency right…
The mixture should be ‘moist but not sticky’ – so slowly add breadcrumbs, mixing through thoroughly, until your mixture is like this. (Better to go little by little than throw lots in and dry it out too much.)
STEP 4 – Okay, it’s time to get creative!
Grab a finger-full of this mixture and roll it in your hands to make each ball. I prefer ping pong-sized balls in general – any larger and sometimes they disintegrate in their sauce.
(Note: I get around 30 meatballs from these ingredients).
Done! This homemade meatball recipe has to be the easiest going right?
Now what?
Let me recap a few of your meaty options..
• Combine these balls with a classic tomato sauce – then munch with spaghetti or any sauce-friendly short pasta.
• Use these balls to follow this sumptuous beef lasagna recipe.
• Use this recipe as the starting point for a wholesome, cold-weather-fighting meatball soup .
• Fry these balls in some medium-heat frying or veg oil until they’re cooked through, then serve with fries and pickle/relish.
Did you find this homemade meatball recipe easy? Please let me know any feedback.
You might also like Wikipedia’s meatball page, as it features a list of all the countries that have meatball dishes (it’s huge!).