Mama Melillo's meatballs

Mama Melillo's meatballs

Michelle Melillo-Clem added this note: "This is the recipe I use at Melillo's because some people are squeamish about veal or pork. However, at home, I use 3 pounds ground chuck, 1 pound ground veal and 1 pound ground pork." I think all ground meat recipes -- meatloaf as well as meatballs -- are tastier if made with a combination of meats.

Also, Melillo-Clem makes rather large meatballs -- quarter pounders. I decided to make somewhat smaller ones for the photo shoot. This much meat makes a lot of meatballs -- 20 quarter-pounders. I made 48 1-inch meatballs before I stopped and froze the remainder. You can reduce the recipe by half (using 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk) or make the whole recipe and freeze the meatballs you can't use in one meal.

5 pounds ground chuck
5 eggs
2 cups Romano cheese
4 cups seasoned bread crumbs
3 heaping tablespoons fresh garlic
5 heaping tablespoons oregano
5 heaping tablespoons basil
Salt and pepper


Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Use your hands to make sure all ingredients are well-blended. Roll meat mixture into balls, and fry in skillet until browned on all sides. Cooked meatballs can be frozen up to one month.

Drop browned meatballs into simmering sauce up to 2 hours before eating to finish cooking.

posted by Mikulak at 9:45 AM 0 comments

Find this recipe at:

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/fea04/blog.html