The Art Of The Meatball

For the first several years of my relationship with my husband, he did the cooking.  He liked it, was good at it, and so he did it.  In the past few years, I've done most of the cooking myself.  In the beginning, it was simple dishes... and then my husband got tired of eating the same old thing.

For me, the go-to meal was always spaghetti with meat sauce.  Simple, fast, and tasty.  When my husband (who has an Italian heritage and family) started to groan about spaghetti, I knew I needed to change things up.

Behold: The Meatball.

1 lb ground beef (73/27 is as lean as you should go, trust me)

2 slices of bread

1/4 cup milk

1 tblsp chopped or minced garlic

Italian seasoning

1 egg

Start by cutting the bread into cubes.

Throw the cubes into a bowl and pour the milk over them.  Let them soak up the milk for five minutes or so.

Chop up garlic, a couple of cloves or so, as fine as you like.  In a pinch, I've used garlic powder and it was just fine.

Add the ground beef to the bowl.

Throw in your egg.

Add about half a tablespoon or so of Italian seasoning.  They sell this... awesome.

Add about a teaspoon of kosher salt and then mix it all up.  If you're dainty, use a strong spoon... if you're an adventurous kind of person, get in there with your hands and just start mixing.  That's good stuff right there.

 Shape your meatballs.  I use a cookie scoop to make them all evenly shaped.

Put them on a greased cookie sheet and prepare them for battle.  I like to give mine a pep talk.  Bake them at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Yummy.  And it's only a bit more work than making a meat sauce, but completely worth it.  Ask my husband who will eat all 12 of these if I'm not quick. Linking up at...