Recipe Friday

Extra meaty meatballs are a perfect way to still enjoy a loved Italian dish while not having to sacrifice your health whether you’re strict keto or carnivore, or even if you’re neither. You can know that you’re providing your family with a nutritionally dense meal that doesn’t contain breadcrumbs, yet are just as tender as meatballs made with a panade. They are great by themselves, but also pair extremely well with any marinara sauce of choice (my personal go-to is RAO’s).

We like to eat these meatballs with RAO’s and a little bit of parmesan cheese. They would also be great paired with zucchini noodles and a rich vodka sauce (recipe coming soon) or enjoyed plain with grass-finished butter melted over the top, but my daughters’ favorite way to enjoy these meatballs is cheeseburger style with ketchup and mustard on the side for dipping and a pickle spear.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef

• 1 lb. pork breakfast sausage (or any other meat of choice)

• 1/2 cup pork panko

• 1/4 cup chicken flour 

• 1/4 cup shredded cheese (we like to use gouda because it tastes so good-uh) but in all seriousness it is a versatile cheese with a mild flavor and melts like mozzarella, but you can definitely just use low moisture mozzarella.

• 2 eggs

• 1 tbsp salt

• 1 tbsp garlic powder

• 1 tbsp onion powder

• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning (we leave this out if we’re doing cheeseburger style)

In a medium sized bowl, combine meats, meat flours, cheese, eggs, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning (if you’re going that route).

Use your hands to mix the ingredients together until evenly combined. Avoid over mixing the meat.

Divide and shape the meat into about 16 meatballs, approximately 1/4 cup in volume for each. We like our meatballs a little bigger, but you can make them any size you want.

Stove Top Cooking Instructions:

Add a tablespoon of avocado oil, lard, or tallow to a large skillet and heat over medium. Once hot, swirl the oil to coat the surface of the skillet. Add meatballs to the skillet.

Cook the meatballs, turning every couple of minutes, until browned on all sides and cooked through. Repeat with the next batch of meatballs.

Then add in your marinara sauce. Sometimes when I’m in a hurry I just add the sauce at the beginning and cook the meatballs in the sauce.

Oven Cooking Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Place the meatballs on the baking sheet about one inch apart from each other.

Bake the meatballs for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Transfer the meatballs to a pot of marinara sauce and simmer for 5-10 more minutes in the sauce. If not using a red sauce, add an additional 3-5 minutes to the bake time, or until the meatballs are cooked through.

Freezing Instructions:

We usually don’t have any left over to freeze, but you can freeze the meatballs either cooked or uncooked. I prefer freezing them already cooked so they can go straight from the freezer into a pot of red sauce and then just simmer until heated through.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!