Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
(Post 2297201)
The perfect meatballs are made along with the sauce. But on days when I am thawing out sauce I've frozen after making it, and need to make new meatballs, I use the microwave oven. As long as you don't TELL your Italian guests you did this, they won't know the difference. So here's what I do:
You need a glass casserole dish, the biggest one that'll fit in your microwave oven.
You'll also need a jar to drain off however much fat you want to drain off. I usually drain around 3/4 of whatever melts into the dish. The other 1/4 adds extra flavor and texture to the sauce.
In a bowl, add:
a couple of palmfuls of italian bread crumbs, for each pound of meat.
a splash of milk
1 egg per pound of meat
a healthy pinch of oregano, smushed into near-powder between your fingers.
1 clove garlic per pound of meat, minced/pressed
half a palmful of grated parmesano reggiano cheese (it's around 1 cubic inch of ungrated cheese)
a few turns of a black pepper grinder
ground beef - 79-85% lean (ground chuck is perfect)
Wash your hands, and smush all that stuff together in the bowl til it's well-blended. Hand-form meatballs around 50% larger than the size of a golf ball. Don't compress them, keep them relatively loose. Place them in the glass dish. If making 2 pounds, you might need to split this into two dishes. Most microwaves won't accommodate a dish big enough for 2 pounds worth of meatballs.
Nuke on high for 3 minutes. Remove from oven, turn them and take the ones in the middle of the dish, and put them on the outer edges, putting the ones that were on the outer edges into the middle.
Nuke again on high for 2 minutes. This is when you would remove the excess fat if you want to (there will be plenty) before adding the sauce.
Pour the sauce over the meatballs, turning them to make sure each one is well-coated. I cut my meatballs in half for this step, but it isn't necessary. I just prefer them to be drier inside rather than juicier.
Nuke again 2 more minutes.
When the macaroni is ready to put in the strainer, nuke again for another minute while you're straining the macaroni.
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