Marion's Meatballs

It's still tomato season here, and I've been busy posting tomato sauce recipes. Here's an old tried and true  family meatball recipe to spice things up. This meatball recipe goes wonderfully with any tomato sauce. Think spaghetti with tomato sauce and meatballs, or a meatball sandwich covered with tomato sauce and cheese. Yumm.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 cup dry breadcrumbs, finely ground, like Panko
1/4 cup. freshly grated Parmesan
1 Tbs. dried parsley
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup milk (or chicken stock)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together, by folding the meat with the rest of the ingredients. Use a light hand! Overmixing can make ground meats tough. Form into 1 inch diameter meatballs. Heat a nonstick skillet and saute the meatballs on all sides until done. Drain on paper towels. For sauce with meatballs, add to the sauce. For meatball sandwich, put two or three meatballs on a sandwich, cover with tomato sauce, and top with mozarella cheese.

Stealthy Cooking Tip: The original recipe calls for ground beef. Try substituting ground turkey, or use half ground turkey and half ground beef. Either way, you'll be cutting down on saturated fats. Also, do drain the meatballs on paper towels, as this further reduces saturated fats. Make sure the meatballs are fully cooked, as ground meats need full cooking. Finally, serve only a few meatballs per person. Make them special!