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Meatballs from Rao's

Source of Recipe

From "Food52: Genius Recipes" by Kristen Miglore


Recipe Introduction

"Spaghetti and meatballs doesn't have to be a meal that you simmer all day, nor does it need to put you into hibernation once you've eaten it. Other great meatball recipes rely on milk or even mayonnaise for their tenderness and personality. This one from Rao's restaurant in New York City has the most unexpected secret ingredient of all: lots of tepid water. It's going to look like way too much (2 cups for 2 pounds of meat?). You will also doubt you can serve very many people with this. But that's before you dump your water over the rest of your ingredients, and see the bread crumbs quickly start rehydrating. Like little sponges, they suck up all available liquid, expanding and lightening the mix. Now you have meat, garlic, cheese, and herbs, all delicately clinging together with a little egg and a lot more wet, willing bread. You could just slip the meatballs straight into the sauce to cook, but when you fry until they're good and brown first, you're invoking the Maillard reaction�caramelizing all the cobbled surfaces and cranking up the rich, meaty flavor, which it then generously shares with the sauce. Whether you want to tell your guests that their spaghetti and meatballs took 1 hour, not 10 (and mention the pint of water), that's up to you."

List of Ingredients

◦ 1 pound lean ground beef
◦ 8 ounces ground veal
◦ 8 ounces ground pork
◦ 2 large eggs
◦ 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
◦ 1 � tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
◦ � small clove garlic, minced
◦ Kosher or sea salt
◦ Freshly ground black pepper
◦ 2 cups fresh bread crumbs
◦ 2 cups lukewarm water
◦ 1 cup good-quality olive oil, for cooking
◦ Your favorite marinara sauce
◦ Pasta, for serving (optional)


Recipe

Combine the beef, veal, and pork in a large bowl. Add the eggs, cheese, parsley, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Using your hands, blend the ingredients together. Mix the bread crumbs into the meat mixture. Slowly add the water, 1 cup at a time, until the mixture is quite moist. (If you want to make sure the seasoning is to your liking, fry off a small test meatball, taste, and adjust.) Shape into 2 �- to 3-inch balls.

Heat the oil in a large saut� pan. When the oil is very hot but not smoking, fry the meatballs in batches. When the bottom half of each meatball is very brown and slightly crisp, turn and cook the top half. Remove from the heat and drain on paper towels.

Heat the marinara sauce to simmering. Lower the cooked meatballs into the simmering sauce and cook for 15 minutes. Serve alone or with pasta.

Makes about 28 meatballs






❧ Genius Tip:

This recipe works best if you make your own fresh bread crumbs (that is, grind or grate some stale bread). In a pinch, if you need to use finer, store-bought bread crumbs, cut back by half, and don't use quite as much water. (The full measure of store-bought crumbs would give you something resembling a stiff, mealy dumpling.)