Fork with spaghetti to go with our meatballs
Going with the flow and being open to change.
Wanting to make the best meatballs I could, I used a tried-and-true spicy Italian sausage blend from the king of butchers — a company out of Chicago that my butcher in Bellingham, Washington orders from. People often ask if I make my own sausage. I will one day take up that challenge, but for now I don’t have the energy when this blend already packs such great flavor. I mix it with lean ground beef and rice panko — a nod to the gluten-free crowd, and it works beautifully. I once tried to replicate the sausage with a local pork producer, but they couldn’t nail the texture; it came out mealy, fell apart in the mouth, and they weren’t interested in — or didn’t quite grasp — the flavor profile I was after.
The old-school method called for bread soaked in milk, squeezed out and folded in. I replaced it with heavy cream and panko. The result: a firm, tender bite that everyone loves. I don’t mention the anchovies. People get funny about it.
It’s funny how time and confidence can lead to happy mistakes. I used to make five-ounce meatballs and plate two per serving. I got so good at the proportions that I stopped weighing them. Twenty pounds of mix reliably filled two sheet trays, so I always had that as my guide. Then one day, about a year later, I was rolling meatballs and only had enough for one tray. I was baffled. Reluctantly, I pulled out the scale I’d long abandoned and weighed one.
Nine ounces.
“Damn,” I said.
I never went back. One big meatball, centered on the plate, is far more impressive than two. That’s how the ONE BIG MEATBALL was born.