At the grocery store, ground veal was reasonably priced and in small portions, so I picked some up, excited to make my meatballs. As I left the store, I realized that I didn't buy any ricotta. I passed an Italian specialty store, and decided to try my luck there instead of going back to the supermarket. They had a little less than a pound of ricotta (at the very reasonable price of 3.49 a pound), so I took it. They wrapped it up in wax paper, tried to get me to buy some overpriced crackers (I declined), and I went on my merry way.
Six hours later, I'm starting to prep dinner - I have tomato sauce simmering on the stove and realize that I don't have any eggs. Argh! It's like I have senile dementia. Do twenty five year olds get that? I run out to whatever the Greek version of a bodega is and pick up some eggs (I love living in New York - I can get fresh eggs, olive oil, or a whole myriad of things without even crossing the street). All right, I'm ready now!
Lena's Veal and Ricotta Meatballs
1 lb ground veal
1/2 lb ricotta
1 egg
1/3 cup Parmesan
salt
pepper
nutmeg
flour (for dredging)
Please note - none of the measurements are exact. I don't measure things. I just throw things in a bowl and hope for the best.
1. Put all your ingredients (except flour) in a bowl!
2. Mix them together with your hands. It's fun. Try to get it all incorporated so that it doesn't look like separate white and pink parts - but don't over mix it.
3. Roll into little balls and roll in the flour. Tap the excess flour off.
4. Briefly saute in some olive oil - don't make a crust on your meatballs, just get them kind of golden brown. You want them to be really tender and fall apart in your mouth.
5. Put them in simmering tomato sauce (oh yeah, you need to have tomato sauce simmering. Did I forget to mention that? Make your own, buy it in a jar, whatever you want. I made my own. I'm an overachiever).
6. Cover your pan and put the whole thing in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Then eat them! You can sprinkle more Parmesan cheese on top and serve with spaghetti or just some nice crusty bread....that's what I would do. They're really good - they taste very light (or as light as cheese can be) and they don't have any bread crumbs in them, which is different than the meatballs I usually make. Yum!
5 comments:
Veal?! Tsk tsk.
Your balls my sauce: heaven.
Well, if the balls were just plain beef... or beef and turkey... or beef and veggie crumbles...
Thing is, veal does taste awesome, I just have issues with them not getting to suffer their whole lives before I consume them. ;)
Um, what's with the tsk-ing? Veal is perfectly delicious. People eat baby animals all the time. Like lamb. And......veal. That's all I can think of, but I don't see the problem.
Don't forget suckling pig! I'm sure that baby cow that was milk fed had a very nice life.
At least it didn't suffer long, like older cows...
Those look delish, and I don't care who I offend when I say it.
As i just said in an IM chat, it's not that veal is baby cow. It's that, as with foi gras, the way they're raised is particularly bad. I won't go into details, cause I'd have to look it up and get all depressed.
I'm a meat-eater, believe me, but I try to only buy stuff that's humaely raised (lots of organic meats have stickers that tell you). I think it's okay to eat animals, circle of life and whatnot, as long as we don't make them unduly miserable when they're still alive.
Or maybe my morals are F'ed up. Vegitarians would certainly think so.
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