Winter Comfort Food - Marvelous Italian Meatballs

Italian Meatballs - Photo by ChristineB

This is a fairly large recipe, it makes 75 golf ball sized meatballs.  I freeze a meal amount of meatballs in individual freezer bags.  This means the effort you put in today, gives you an easy meal for four or five nights (I allow about four meatballs per person).

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

1 1/2 pounds ground pork

6 cloves garlic minced

4 eggs

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

2 cups Italian style bread crumbs

1 1/2 to 2 cups lukewarm water (see directions)

Directions:

Using your hands:

Combine beef and pork in a large bowl.  Add garlic, eggs, cheese, salt and pepper

Blend bread crumbs into meat mixture.  Add a 1/2 cup of water at a time.  The mixture should be a moist consistency, yet still be firm enough to shape into meatballs.  Place meatballs on a greased baking sheet sprayed with cooking oil.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until internal temperature reaches beef (170 degrees F) with meat thermometer.

Makes about 75 golf ball-sized meatballs.  Now, if you like to make them into tennis ball size--like my husband started out doing until I intervened--you will get less.  You can also make them tiny and have a ton to be used in soups, stews and appetizer recipes.

By ChristineB's husband DanB--thanks for making dinner!