Moist, Flavorful Meatballs

Yesterday, we had the privileged of bringing three meals to people we know. My daughter and I cooked, decorated and assembled three full meals and then set off to deliver them. Our main dish was meatball sandwiches. Because I have had, (and made) so many dry, bland meatballs, I set out to create a recipe that would be the opposite…moist and flavorful. This recipe makes 80 or so good sized meatballs. That was plenty to feed the combined 15 people I was feeding.

Ingredients:

3 lbs Ground Beef (Organic Grass Fed if possible)
1/2 cup Ketchup
1 cup Onions, chopped
3 whole Eggs, Beaten
1 teaspoon Granulated Garlic
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 cup Fresh Basil, chopped
1 1/2 cups Fresh Bread Crumbs
1 c. Half-n-half

Instructions:

Place your ground beef, eggs, half-n-half, and ketchup into the bowl of your mixer with dough hook attached. Start your mixer on low speed covered on top with a towel because the meat will try to escape. 🙂 After some of the liquid is incorporated, it all stays put and you can move up to medium speed.

Once the liquid ingredients are incorporated (will take a few minutes) add in the onions, basil. breadcrumbs and seasonings and mix until incorporated. Using your stand mixer for this step is such a time and mess saver.

Now it is time to test your flavors by cooking a little patty of the meat.

Cook your little patty for a few minutes on each side and taste. We have two patties…my daughter was in “smelling distance” :). If your seasonings are perfect, it is time to form your meatballs. You could use a scoop to do so, but I prefer to do them by hand because it helps them to remain soft. I sprayed my hands with cooking spray and lightly formed the meatballs and placed them on a foil lined baking sheet. You will see some large onions in my meatballs…they are better if they are chopped smaller. 🙂

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and, if you are making meatball sandwiches or spaghetti and meatballs, place your meatballs right in the sauce to soak up even more flavor. I used the sauce I made with the fresh tomatoes we purchased from Lombardi Ranch. It was just the right time to defrost it from the freezer!

Whether you eat these yummy meatballs as is, or place them in some delicious sauce for spaghetti or meatball sandwiches, you will not be disappointed. We packaged ours up in 4 one-quart mason jars and delivered them along with steamed garlic green beans, salad made from our pre-prepped veggies from Produce Prep Tuesday, Rolls, and Chocolate cupcakes topped with Fluffy 4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Frosting.