Italian Sausage Meatballs Recipe

I could eat spaghetti and meatballs every night of the week. Of course my laundry bill would be astronomical. There are cleaning products for removing every possible stain including wine, coffee, ink and blood, but no one has invented a product to remove spaghetti sauce stains. Not yet anyway.

This recipe came about as part of my effort to "eat down the freezer." I had a package of two Italian sausages and some ground beef on hand, but neither were really enough to make a meal. The secret to these meatballs is a combination of pork and beef and also what you use to stretch the meat, plenty of bread and milk. The bread and milk create a very tender texture. Italian sausages have lots of seasoning and fat so you really don't need to add much more in that department though some fresh herbs are nice. I do like using dehydrated toasted onion flakes. I get them from Penzey's and they are great in dishes like this where normally I would want to saute fresh onions. They have good flavor and are a real time saver.

Another trick to this recipe is baking the meatballs instead of frying them. I used to bake them on a lined baking sheet, but they were always flat on the bottom. Now I use the non-stick rack and they are perfectly round! If you don't have a sheet pan with a non-stick rack, I highly recommend you get one. As you can see, they are very useful for much more than just cooling cookies!

Italian Sausage Meatballs
Makes 16 meatballs, 4-5 servings

Ingredients

1/2 pound Italian sausages, casings removed
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 Tablespoon dehydrated toasted onion flakes
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3 Tablespoons fresh Italian herbs, chopped (such as parsley, basil, oregano) or 3 teaspoons dried Italian herbs
Spaghetti sauce, from a jar or homemade

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl gently combine the sausage and beef. Add the bread crumbs, onion, egg, milk and herbs. Combine using your hands, but try not to handle the meat too much. Form into about 16 meatballs. I do this by dividing the mixture into 4 portions and then dividing each portion into another 4 portions.

Place meatballs on a non-stick rack, set in a foil-lined sheet pan and bake undisturbed for 20 minutes. Meanwhile simmer spaghetti sauce in a large dutch oven. Remove meatballs and transfer to the simmering sauce, allow meatballs to cook in the sauce for 10-20 minutes. Serve with pasta or use in a meatball sandwich.

Enjoy!

Sausage & Vegetable Kebabs

I love kebabs! I don't know why eating food on a stick is so much fun, but it is. The best kebabs I ever had were in Istanbul, the meat sizzled on the outside but was juicy on the inside. Luckily kebabs are easy to make at home even for those like me, without an outdoor grill.

I'm amazed at how versatile kebabs are and how they always manage to stretch whatever I'm cooking. It must have something to do with surface area and spacial relations. When food is served on a stick, it just seems like there is more of it. Two slices of eggplant, two small zucchini and just under two Italian sausages somehow made a huge dinner for two. It also gave me the feeling of Summer, even though it was cooked and eaten indoors.

When it comes to kebabs, skip the bamboo. The best kind of skewers are metal--I have two sets, flat metal which are particularly good for meat and vegetables and double pronged which are perfect for seafood. With either one you choose, the food won't slip and slide. In my experience food also cooks faster and more evenly on metal skewers than on bamboo. Buy 'em once, use them forever.

The secret to this recipe is the marinade. Most recipes call for putting a sauce on the vegetables after they cook, but this marinade has nothing in it that will burn and the eggplant in particular soaks up lots of flavor. The smoked paprika adds great smoky flavor and color. I also find that the sausage is salty enough that you don't need to add any additional salt. I used spicy sausages, but I think you could use sweet ones if you prefer. Don't be tempted to cut the sausage and vegetables into larger chunks, keeping the vegetables and sausage slices small allows them to cook quickly and evenly.

Sausage & Vegetable Kebabs

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients

3/4 lb mixed eggplant and summer squash
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 teaspoon smoked paprika--hot or sweet
2 Italian sausages, about 1/2 pound
Fresh basil or sage leaves, optional

Instructions

Slice the eggplant and squash into small cubes, about 1/2 inch. Make the marinade by combining the lemon juice, olive oil, galic and smoked paprika. Place the marinade and vegetables into a zip top bag and let marinate for up to 3 hours. Most of the marinade will be absorbed by the vegetables.

Preheat broiler then slice the sausage into about 12 - 15 slices. Slide the cubes of squash, eggplant and sausage onto skewers, preferably metal, with sage or basil leaves on top of each piece of sausage. All the meat and vegetables should be touching with no spaces in between.

Place skewers on a foil lined broiler pan and broil about 7 minutes on each side or until meat and vegetables are cooked through. Serve with couscous.

Enjoy!