Cooking In Boone ... Staunton: Meaty Meaty Meatballs!

You'll need:
1 1/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup fine dried breadcrumbs
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef, such as ground chuck
1 pound ground veal
2 1/2 teaspoons chunky kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
3/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
About 4 tbsps finely chopped fresh sage, from 2 small herb bunches
1 1/2 cups finely diced or grated yellow onion, from about 2 small yellow onions
4 large garlic cloves, finely minced or grated
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 large eggs, beaten
Olive oil

I’m always up for meatballs. Always. And I’m not much of a meatball snob… I like everything from home-made three meat baked meatballs, to meatballs in a bag that have been slow-cooked in Chili Sauce and Grape Jelly…. I could go either way… the end result is usually the same.. put it on a crusty sub roll, and I’m good to go.
So without further ado… let’s get down to it.
First, dump your milk and breadcrumbs together…

Give the crumbs a stir to get them all submerged…

So… now, you’ve got 10 minutes to take care of about 30 minutes worth of work….
First, get out your meats and let them move towards room temperature for a little while…

On top is the veal. Then pork. Then beef…. I used a 85/15 beef, as you want a little bit of fat in your meatballs.
A word about the ground veal… The recipe just throws it out there, like it’s any other ingredient… like going to the store to grab some ground veal is just like grabbing a quart of milk…. In reality, the recipe might as well call for ground Bald Eagle…. It took going to several different stores to find it… the butcher at our best grocery store didn’t have it… but he told me that if I gave him several days notice, he could get it for me… he had veal cutlets… but they don’t ground their own veal… it comes in pre-ground… so.. he couldn’t even take the cutlets and grind them for me… This is the same store that carries ground bison, Capons, quail and rabbit…. because all of those are just much more normal stock items than frickin ground veal.
Anyhow… it’s time to chop all sorts of stuff… your sage, onions, parsley, etc.

Note… if you mix some of your fresh cut parsley with your paprika and salt…. you can make an Italian flag!

Toss all of your chopped stuff and spices in with your meat…
Then add the breadcrumbs/milk/eggs/everything else.

Now… mix everything up… use your hands…. get dirty and grubby with meat and awesome…. it’ll get all under your fingernails (if you have them) and all up in all of the crevices in your skin…. embrace it. love it… let the fat from the meat be your hand moisturizer.

So… now that it’s all mixed up awesomely… enlist your sous chef to roll you a bunch of 1-1/2” balls.

Preheat your oven to 350, and line a couple of baking sheets with foil. It also doesn’t hurt to spray down the foil with some olive oil….. as the balls are rolled, put them on the foil…

Then, bake for about 20-24 minutes…. you’re not looking to bake all of the way through right yet…
After they’ve baked, let them cool, and stack them up in your crockpot.

Now, smother them with sauce, and set the crockpot on low.

How long do you let them go in the crockpot?? Well… the longer they go, the softer they’ll get…. also, the more they’ll lose their individual flavors, and become one mass of awesomeness… I tried a meatball after about an hour in the sauce last night, and I wasn’t a big fan… it was very flavorful… lots of flavor from the sage and parsley… it wasn’t bad… but not my favorite either… however, I came downstairs this morning, and kicked the crockpot back on for a while… after about another hour, they were tasting pretty awesome… and had softened up nicely…. but, you don’t want to let them go too long, as you’ll end up with just meat sauce… it’ll be awesome meat sauce… but we’re making meatballs.