Lydia's Meatballs

The Classic Italian Meatball made with our wonderful freshly ground beef!

Ingredients

2 lb freshly ground beef
1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 med onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic
½c flat (Italian) parsley
2 T olive oil
2 cups cool water (divided)
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (use sliced white bread, some ends of Italian bread, or even one plain English muffin)
2 med eggs
1 cup grated Parmigiana
4 T kosher salt
4 T fresh ground black pepper

Heat oven to 375
Cover a rimmed cookie sheet with foil, spray lightly with non-stick spray or olive oil
Place the ground meat into a bowl
Process the carrot, onion, garlic, parsley: pulse until finely chopped
Heat olive oil until shimmering and empty the processor bowl into the pan, don’t rinse the processor yet
Add 2T salt and 2T pepper; saute vegetables on medium, stirring often
Let veggies soften and lightly color, then add 1 cup cool water and scrape up any stuck veggies; cook 3 minutes more
Remove from heat and let cool (so they don’t cook the ground beef when you mix everything up in the bowl)
Into your processor: breadcrumbs, 1 cup water, eggs, parmigiana, process until smooth
Pour over the ground meat
Add 2T Kosher salt and 2T ground pepper
Add the sautéed veggies to the bowl and mix everything up gently; breaking up the pieces of meat, moving your hands around the edges of the bowl to lift and mix until well blended.
Form 2” meatballs, keep your hands moist to make it roll smoothly. You should get around 20 meatballs
Roast meatballs for 25 minutes, temperature should be 165 degrees, if not, roast a few more minutes
If you want, broil for 5 minutes to brown them a bit
Put into your tomato sauce, or serve with ricotta on Italian bread
Store leftover meatballs in the refrigerator, or freeze them; heat up to 165