Last week I made the horrible decision to try larger meatballs. Never again. It reminded me of a meatball my dad and I had in Chicago. The waiter raved about it and said it was the best thing on the menu. It was breakfast time, so it felt like weird order, but we ordered it as an appetizer to share. When it came, I was confused. There was just one big ball of meat, larger than my balled up fist, sitting in a lake of red sauce. I had seen large meatballs before, but this was on another level. We thanked the waiter and dug in. It was pretty good, but it wasn’t a meatball. Something this large inevitably is a meatloaf. It had all the telltale signs of a meatball. But at the end of the day, the texture was far too loose to be a meatball.
The meatball I made last week may not have been even close to the size of the fist, but it was large. No matter what I do, I can never make a ball of meat have the correct texture when it is that large. I’m not even sure the best way to describe the correct texture other than firm whereas a meatloaf is loose.
If it is one thing I get right for this competition, it is going to be the texture of my meatball..
If the last section didn’t make it clear, I’m going back to smaller meatballs. I’ve also decided to add lemon. Except instead of mixing it into the sauce, I’m going to sprinkle a bit on it after frying it. The other way I could go about this zesting the lemon and put some lemon juice into the mixture. I’m not doing this because I think the zest may be a bit too powerful and the lemon juice, I believe, will loosen the mixture. Past that, I’m going to stick with the regular recipe and hope the lemon adds that something that has been missing so far.
I’m also adding a bit more ricotta since the meatball won’t be spending too much time in the sauce. This means the ricotta will actually stay in the meatball and the taste may be improved. Though, I am a tad bit concerned that the ricotta is the culprit for my meatball not being firm enough.
After frying the meatballs I put them on paper towels and sprinkled some lemon juice on them. I then removed the oil and put the sauce into the pot. I put two of the meatballs I cooked into the sauce to help flavor the sauce to the meatballs. I left it to run for 15 minutes at medium heat with occasional stirring.
After removing the two meatballs I put all of my meatballs in the sauce for a minute. Despite this, they were cold. The texture wasn’t firm enough. The lemon was there, but the taste was not what I wanted. The lack of parmesan was readily apparent. It’s definitely time to start adding parm into the mixture. I’m starting to think that some red wine is required and I know I have to try balsamic. I wanted to avoid balsamic since my brother uses it. But I don’t see a way around it.