Old World Sicilian Meatballs
I love meatballs! I only eat spaghetti when it’s littered with them. When I make meatballs, sometimes they are great and sometimes not so good. Recently I started my search for a fool-proof recipe that turns out perfect every time.
While online I stumbled upon a social media group where descendants of Sicily can post recipes handed down from generation to generation. What a crazy group this turned out to be! After joining, I realized that members posted recipes and questions at their own risk.
Let me say, my Sicilians are a spirited bunch of people. They are passionate about all things Italian. The biggest argument among them is, what is the correct name for the tomato topping on spaghetti noodles?
There are two camps on this topic. One camp says the correct name is “sauce” and the other says it’s “gravy.”
The first post I read when I Joined was from a member named Gina. Her post simply said, ” My Grandmother’s recipe for gravy calls for it to cook on the stove for eight hours. Does that sound correct?” Instead of answering her question, my Sicilians started a “comment” war.
Gina’s simple request turned into 532 responses. Here is a sampling of the comments left for Gina, “gravy is for biscuits”, “Your grandma wasn’t Sicilian,” and “leave her alone, she can call it what she wants.” I checked the thread every hour to keep up with the name calling and verbal abuse.
Recently a member named Margret asked what everyone’s favorite sauce was from a jar? Oh my, I can not repeat the language used in the responses, you see, a Sicilian would NEVER use a sauce from a jar.
From this online group, I have found a sense of community, like a family. As in all families, they have dysfunction, but they have the same goal they want to share their story, their passion, and recipes.
My Old World Sicilian Meatball recipe is from Tony Albano. His Great Grandmother brought this recipe with her from the old world. The meatballs come out perfectly every time.
As always, if you try this recipe, snap a photo and post to Instagram with #dougbakes. Feel free to leave a comment below, however, do not ask me if I call it sauce or gravy. I am neutral in this argument.
Old World Sicilian Meatballs
This is a classic meatball recipe. Tender, crispy on the outside and moist inside. An old recipe to treasure.
Ingredients
- 3 slices white bread, torn into pieces
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 12 ounces sweet Italian sausage links
- 2 eggs
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
-
Combine bread and milk or water in a medium bowl.
-
Let bread soak for a couple of mins and ring out most of the milk.
Break up the bread into small pieces.
-
Remove the casings from the sweet sausage and break the sausage up until it matches the consistency of the ground beef.
-
Mix ground beef, sausage, eggs, onion, Romano cheese, basil, oregano, bread, and salt and pepper to taste. Form golf ball-sized meatballs; place into refrigerator for 2 hours to firm up.
-
Heat oil in a large skillet. Add meatballs to the hot oil making sure not to crowd them. Cook meatballs in batches.
-
Cook on all sides until the centers are no longer pink. 5-6 mins.
Allow draining on paper towels.
This is the closest recipe to what my Sicilian grandmother actually made regularly and added to her day long cooked sauce. I have been searching for awhile and never did she cook meatballs with raisins & pine nuts like I see in so many recipes. I wonder if this is like a poor folk recipe rather than one for the rich folks.