I like ground beef hamburgers, but that’s pretty much where my love for ground beef stops. It especially does not appeal to me when it comes to Italian cooking. I don’t like it in my lasagna and I’d prefer to have a meatball made out of pretty much any other ground meat available. In fact, until I started making meatballs with other meats I would have proclaimed that I didn’t even like them at all. My husband is a big fan of both lasagna and meatballs, so I’m always looking for ways to satisfy both of our preferences. These all veal meatballs were easy, delicious, and contain a rather short list of ingredients. If you’ve never used veal for your meatballs, you should try it. You could also do half veal and half pork to bring the cost down, and the flavor depth up.
This recipe is adapted from Food and Wine Magazine’s “Veal Meatballs with Fried Sage Leaves” by Marco Gallotta. I only made the meatballs and changed the preparation a bit, but look forward to trying out the full recipe in the future.
Veal Meatballs
- 2 oz. day old bread chopped into small cubes with the crusts removed (about 1 cup)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 lb. ground veal
- 2 green onions, minced (white and green parts)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- Butter and Olive Oil for searing
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cover bread with milk and let soak for about 10 minutes. Add the veal, green onion, garlic, salt, and pepper into a separate bowl. Squeeze the milk from the bread and add into the meat mixture. Combine the mixture with your hands until all ingredients are well distributed. Shape into meatballs of your desired size. I went with larger meatballs and was only able to get 6 out of the pound of meat.
Toss the meatballs with flour so they are lightly covered. Coat a pan with olive oil and a little butter and sear these on all sides on medium heat. Transfer to oven and bake until cooked through.
city food. country kitchen. 