Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs!

When the weather turns, meatballs show up in our house. It’s not quite as magical as it sounds.  I make them and enlist the kids help rolling them because I make a quadruple batch and that’s a lot of rolling. With the meatballs that I amass, I can make meatball soup, meatball sandwiches, pasta and meatballs and phộ. The choices go on and on. Today I’m going to post the recipe for the meatballs as well as meatball soup.

I have adapted a meatball recipe I found 5 years ago on an anniversary trip to the coast of Oregon. Jason went surfing and I stayed at the bed and breakfast and read. I loved the recipe book so much that Jason bought it for me when we returned to Seattle - Every Night Italian by Guiliano Hazan.  A lot of the recipes have eggs which are not allowed in our family due to allergies. The eggs have been removed from this recipe and a few odd items added.

Meatballs - for approximately 8 large dinners (Printable Recipe)

• ½ loaf of Italian bread cut into 1 inch cubes and left out overnight uncovered
• ½ cup hot milk
• 1 cup oatmeal ground to powder in a food processor
• 4 cups shredded parmesan cheese*
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
• 4 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• salt to taste
• 3 pounds of ground beef
• 2 pound of ground pork

Mix all the dry ingredients and then sprinkle over the meat.  Gently fold everything together until it looks uniform. Don’t overmix or the meatballs will take on a weird texture. Pat out the mixture onto a clean cutting board and press into a ½ inch thick squareish patty.

Then gently score the meat in ½ inch lines in both directions creating little ½ inch squares. 

Then roll each square into balls and place onto a cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer.

Then when they are frozen pop them in bags - some bigger bags for dinners that you’ll use more and some in small bags.


*Avoid the urge to reach for the green jar of parmesan cheese stuff. Use a really good Parmeasan cheese. You will be pleasantly satisfied.

Meatball Soup for 4 (Printable Recipe)

• 8 cups beef broth
• Herbs (I use 1 sprig thyme, 1 sprig rosemary)
• 1 carrot sliced
• 1 bunch kale, collards, or mustard greens
• ½ onion
• 1½ cup small salad pasta
• 32 meatballs
• Parmesan cheese
• Italian bread

In your soup pot melt one tablespoon of butter, add the onion, carrot and kale and let everything cook for about 5 minutes or until things start getting softened.  Add the broth, bring to a boil, add the pasta meatballs. Cook for 3 minutes then add the pasta.  Cook until the pasta is al dente. Serve with a twist of black pepper, a little sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and bread to dip.