Namee's Meatballs

Libby is feeling much better, which is wonderful news! Tonight, we are having Supper Club at our house and the theme is Italian. We started Supper Club last month when our friends, Laury (Louisiana native) and John, invited us over to their house to meet 3 other Louisiana couples that live in our neighborhood. We had some delicious gumbo that Laury made. It made me homesick when we got to her house and she had this HUGE Magnalite pot covering 2 burners on her stove. My mom uses the same big pots (maybe it's a Louisiana thing?)! I made Namee's (my great grandmother) bread pudding and it was gone quickly. We had so much fun with our new friends that we decided to make it a monthly get-together... our own Louisiana Supper Club. My dad and stepmom have done this where they change the cuisine each month to make it interesting.

We decided to host in April and I am excited to make a huge pot of Namee's meatballs! She was Sicilian and my mom learned how to cook from watching her. She never wrote anything down and hardly measured anything. My mom cooks this way today. When I first started to cook in college, I had a really hard time with this! I NEEDED a recipe to refer to so that I would feel comfortable. I remember when my mom first gave me the fudge recipe she uses (maybe it's Namee's, too?) and said things like, "Well, you wait till it comes to a hard ball and then just let it cook a little more." Okay, what? I did find out what that meant by making my first, and second, and third... batches before getting it right. Funny thing is, we didn't account for the climate in Virginia to be VERY different than in Louisiana. Did you know that humid days are not good for making candies, like pralines and fudge? And cold climates (such as a snow day in northern Virginia) requires much less time beating as it firms up much quicker. I found that out after wasting lots of money on LOTS of pecans to make pralines for the first time!

Well, here's Namee's recipe for meatballs that my mom and Janey (her sister) still use today:

You'll need a total of 3 lbs. of meat:
~ 2 lbs. ground chuck*
~ 1 lb. ground pork (or Italian sausage squeezed out of its casing)*
(sometimes we add a little bit of ground veal, too-- makes the meatballs softer)
* I actually cheat and buy the "Meatloaf Mix" from the grocery, which is ground beef, pork, and veal all blended together
~ chopped onions
~ freshly chopped (or dried) parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary
~ freshly minced garlic
~ 1 medium carrot, finely chopped (or a few tbs. of sugar to cut down the acidity of the sauce)
~ 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
~ other seasonings you might like (I use Spike)
~ Progresso Italian breadcrumbs
~ 1 egg
~ yellow mustard
~ worcestshire sauce
~ red wine
~ 4 big cans tomato sauce (I often use 2 sauce, 2 crushed tomatoes)
~ 1 tiny can tomato paste

Mix meat (but not too much b/c it will make the meatballs tough), some chopped onions, herbs, garlic, carrot, and seasonings, the egg, a few squirts of mustard, a shake or 2 of worcestshire together with hands in a large bowl. Add enough breadcrumbs so that the meat holds together to make meatballs. Form into meatballs (I like bigger ones) and place in large glass casserole (Pyrex) dish. Bake until cooked or microwave covered with wax paper for 20 minutes (what mom and I do). Meanwhile, prepare the sauce:
Brown some onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in olive oil in a large pot until tender. Add cans of tomato sauce and paste. Add 1 can of water for each can you put in. Add some more herbs, seasonings, some red wine, worcestshire, etc. When meatballs are done, use a strained spoon to add them to sauce. You can add some of the juices from the meatballs for flavor, but I try to cut down on excess fat when I can. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for as long as you'd like- the longer, the more the flavor and thicker the sauce. Serve with spaghetti. This will feed about 4-6 people quite easily- with leftovers.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out! ;) I will never forget one of the first times I helped Mom make them at her house for a big family gathering. She told me to add the sugar to the sauce to cut down on the acid. I asked how much and she said, "Just a spoonful." Well, that was a mistake b/c I was actually using the spoon scooper from inside the sugar canister and it was probably a cup or so. Let's just say I RUINED the pot of meatballs. They were sweet as candy and disgusting. I remember Mom and Janey feverishly running around trying to figure out what to add to fix this. Well, there was no fixing it! I wasn't really asked to help much after that. ;) But no worries about that now- I've made them enough times on my own to know better. The good thing about our "a little this, a little that" way of cooking makes each batch come out a little differently. I think that is what makes them magical- delicious every time, but always a surprise.