Homemade Meatballs

Last night, we went all-out to celebrate Alex’s arrival with his favorite dinner:

Spaghetti and HomeDorm-made Meatballs!

Alex raved about my meatballs when I made them for his birthday in October, so I figured they would be perfect to make for a special “Welcome to New Zealand!” dinner.  They are actually quite simple and easy, but maybe it’s just my Italian blood that makes me such a natural   They don’t take too long to make and aren’t terribly expensive, so any college kid can certainly pull them off!   Here’s how I made them!

The first step is to finely chop one onion and mince about 3 cloves of garlic.  If you are poor college students like us who can’t afford grated parmigiano-reggiano, the just grate the %50-off 1kg block of mild cheddar.  I would say you need about a half a cup, but I wasn’t measuring. 

In a large mixing bowl, add the cheese, the garlic, the package of ground meat, and 1/2 of the onions.  I also added a very generous squirt of the Italian Herb Paste and two eggs.

Remove your rings, and combine the mixture by hand.  Once it is thoroughly combined, form the actual balls with your hands.  Be sure to make lots of jokes about “meaty balls.”

I made mine pretty small (between a golf ball and a pong ball) because they cook faster and our pan is sketchy, but you can make them any size you please.

I learned how to make meatballs from my mom.  She’s taught me everything I know!  The most important step in making delicious, authentic meatballs, according to her, is to fry them.  It’s just not as good when you bake them   So, carefully place the balls on a heated (about medium) oiled pan.

Keep the balls rolling to make sure you cook them evenly on each size.

When they are cooked all the way through, add them to (canned) sauce that is warming on the stovetop.  I made two batches and kept the second half out of the sauce.

With some al dente spaghetti, dinner is ready!

It was positively unforgettable!  As if dinner wasn’t special enough, we had to have a special dessert…

Chocolate Mud Cake!  Purchased from the supermarket for only nz$6!!! No, it’s none of our birthdays, but it’s Dominique’s on Friday!

Happy Birthday, Nini!

We were happy to enjoy the cake in her honor <3  We even sang Happy Birthday to her!

I “put it hot” in the microwave for a few seconds, thus, I couldn’t help going back for seconds   I know that I am trying to resist sweets, but I Alex’s arrival is definitely worth a celebration

PS – Did you notice all of the stellar photos of the cooking process?  Well, Alex is a bit of a professional, so he offered to take nice photos for me!  I’m thrilled with how they came out and SO excited to have good pictures on my blog for once!  Thank so much, Alex, they look amazing.

Have you ever made meatballs from scratch?

Namaste.

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