Mary Lou’s Twist on Mom’s Italian Style Meatballs

The weather is cooling down and we are ready to start cooking some fall recipes! Read on below to see one of my mom’s favorites! Love, Mary Lou

1lb of ground beef (lean)
1lb of ground turkey (traditional is actually a mixture of beef, veal and pork)
1 cup of grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese
Salt and pepper
4-6 cloves of chopped garlic (more of less to taste)
about 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, fresh or a handful of dried parsley. My mom used lots of parsley in her meatballs
Fresh or dried basil (dried is more concentrated so use less for all dried herbs).
Garlic and onion powder, about 2 tsp of each
A couple of slices of Pane Italian bread (stale bread is perfect for this!) soaked in hot water for a little while, then squeeze out the excess water and add to the mixture. (You can also use breadcrumbs and a little water or milk for some moisture, but my mom always used Pane Italian bread soaked in hot water and squeezed out.
2 eggs to bind the meatballs.

Mix by hand and roll into balls or use an ice cream scooper if you like. (My mom always did it by hand of course!)

Now, you have options for cooking. You can either fry your meatballs in a pan, then finish them in the oven or in a tomato sauce but if you don’t want your meatballs fried you can drop them raw right into a simmering/boiling pot of tomato sauce and then simmer until cooked through.
I usually do mine that way because I make a big pot of sauce (yes, we make our own 😁) and I let them simmer very low for a couple of hours.
Delicious!
As you can tell, we don’t really use exact measurements. My mom just cooked, just like her mom and her grandma. When she would teach you how to make something it was a “handful” or “about this much” or “you know, to taste”.