I grew up on bread and meatballs.
Okay, not only. But meatballs are something I ate and eat often.
I like them all: made with meat, rice, vegetable. Fried, cooked in the pan or in broth, baked. With or without tomato sauce.
Sausage meatballs
I am a serial meatball eater and maker.
Unfortunately, there is no memory for meatball recipes in my grandmother’s cookbooks.
She made the dough by eye and memory and, in this way, we have lost many of her recipes. My mother and I have just managed to recover a couple of them.
The ones we loved the most and that we also remembered… by memory.
Among the quick recipes of meatballs to make, nonna often made the ones with sausage and mortadella or just sausage. I remember that she made them very small, then fry them and finally, before they arrived on the table, they would be passed in sauce just for a quarter.
My own version
This is a meatball made with fresh Italian sausage mixed with coarsely chopped vegetables, a little grated parmigiano and a little breadcrumbs.
They cook quickly in the oven and are the right recipe for serving a tasty dish when you are short of time. You can serve them as a main dish with a side or as an aperitif.
I also like them in a salad.
I have used fava beans, peas and carrots as vegetables. Use whatever you have on hand, just remember to chop them finely with a knife.
Cook with love and life will smile on you,
Monica
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Food Tips
If you want to give to the meatballs more flavor, add a tablespoon of mustard to the mixture.
If you prefer, cook them in a pan with a little stock or greasing with olive oil the bottom of the pan.
Baked Vegetable Sausage Meatballs Recipe
serves 4
for 20-22 meatballs
Ingredients
Italian sausage, 300g
breadcrumbs, 50g
grated parmigiano, 20g
fava beans, 50g
peas, 50g
carrots, 1 small
milk, 1 tablespoon
salt, a pinch
mustard, if you like
Directions
Shell the fava beans and peas and cut the carrot into small pieces.
Cook the vegetables for 10 minutes in unsalted boiling water.
Drain the vegetables and chop into small pieces with a knife.
Preheat the oven to 180C degrees, static function.
Remove the casing from the sausage: cut it end to end with the tip of a knife. The cut should be shallow enough to pierce the casing—don’t cut all the way through the sausage.
Grab the split casing on one end with your thumb and forefinger and pull back the casing.
Break sausage in crumbs into a bowl and add in all the other ingredients and knead with your hands.
Shape into little-medium meatballs and place on a tray covered with baking paper.
Brush the meatballs with mustard if you like, otherwise brush with a little olive oil and bake for about 15 minutes, turning halfway through.
Serve the meatballs warm with a side or at room temperature with a sauce as an aperitif.
