The Secret to Great Italian Meatballs

Ground pork is the key to making a decent Italian meatball. Maria Komar/Shutterstock

Italian meatballs and sauce made only with ground beef? Well, you may as well be eating a hamburger.

Every paisan knows you can’t make decent meatballs with only one kind of meat. While you obviously need ground beef, the actual flavor comes from something else: ground pork.

Pork not only takes the meatballs to another level but also flavors the sauce. Because, as you’ll see, the sauce cooks the meatballs part of the way.

After working eight years in my father’s delicatessen, it’s not a big deal for me to make a giant pot of sauce and 100 meatballs. I then divide everything into small containers, give some to friends, and freeze the rest.

But not to worry, I don’t expect you to do that, as this is not a recipe for a massive amount of food. You can make as much or as little as you want. If you’re doing this for the first time, it’s best to start small, as the taste of the spices in the meatballs and sauce is up to your personal preference. There’s a lot of trial and error when it comes to spices. If you’re looking for a traditional recipe with a cup of this and a dash of that, this isn’t it. Like I said, it’s personal. I don’t know a single Italian who has a recipe written down.

So let’s get started with a small batch until you find the combination that suits you. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Tomato puree—not tomato sauce, but puree, for a better, thicker consistency
• Olive oil for frying the meatballs
• Two parts ground chuck to one part ground pork. Ground chuck has the perfect ratio of lean meat to fat, 80/20, along with a better flavor. Use regular ground beef and you’ll end up with greasy meatballs and sauce, and then you’ll be known as a stunad (Italian for idiot).
• Herbs—fresh is always best: parsley, oregano, and basil
• Garlic cloves 
• Eggs: one per pound of meat
• Breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper
• Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• One old red shirt (you will get splattered)
• Bottle of wine: red or white, doesn’t matter

You’ll need a pot for the sauce and a frying pan. To get started, fill your pot with puree and start heating it up. Add some olive oil to the frying pan. (Note that olive oil is somewhat delicate and will burn under high heat, so when you start frying the meatballs, keep the heat on low to medium).

Now it’s time to make the meatballs. After you thoroughly mix the ground chuck and pork, add a good amount of parsley flakes. You should see plenty of green specks in the mixture. Parsley isn’t the most exciting spice in the world, but it adds a lot to meatballs. Add a little salt and press a garlic clove or two into the mix. Follow that with the eggs. The mixture should be sticky at this point, so slowly add breadcrumbs until the mix no longer sticks to your hands.

Next, you’ll roll a couple of test meatballs. Fry them up and give them a taste. There should be a hint of salt, nothing overpowering. If you don’t taste any salt, add a little more.

Once you’ve got that figured out, start rolling up the rest of the mixture and begin frying. But you’re not going to cook the meatballs all the way; just fry them enough so that they hold together. Once you’ve reached that point, gently add them to the hot sauce. The heat of the sauce will cook them the rest of the way, picking up the flavor from the pork and ensuring that your meatballs will be nice and soft. You can also throw in some Italian sausages if you like. The Premio brand is my favorite. Reduce the heat on the pot of sauce to simmer, as low as it will go. Stir every 15 minutes so that nothing sticks to the bottom.

Meanwhile, add spices to the sauce: Toss in small amounts of parsley, oregano, basil, parmesan or romano, garlic, and pepper. After it has simmered for an hour, give it a taste. Personally, I like to taste it by dipping a little piece of Italian or French bread into the sauce. If the sauce isn’t spicy enough for your taste, add more spices until you’re satisfied. Remember, you can always add more spices, but you can’t take them out if you add too much—add a little at a time.

At this point, the sauce will be blazing hot, so turn it off for an hour and let it sit. Then simmer for one more hour, again stirring every 15 minutes. Turn it off and let it sit for another hour. OK, you’re done.

If you want to experience something cool, go outdoors for 5 or 10 minutes, then come back into the kitchen. It will smell like an Italian restaurant. You can put on some Sinatra for the full effect.

Now you have meatballs and sauce you can use in a bunch of different ways. Pasta and meatballs! Meatball sandwiches! Chicken parmigiana! And when you make everything from scratch, it’s healthier, as you avoid the chemicals and preservatives in prepared foods.

Now pour yourself a glass of wine and toast your batch of homemade meatballs and sauce by saying Cent’Anni!—“May you live a hundred years.”

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