Ina Garten’s tip: this is the secret to the juiciest meatballs

Is there anything better than a homemade meatball? Not in my opinion. In my quest for the perfect meatball, my colleague Wieke once shared her secret ingredient for the tastiest Italian meatballs with me, but believe me: you’ll also want to know Ina Garten’s tip for the tastiest, juiciest meatballs. 

Whether it’s a quick weeknight meal or an impressive dinner for guests, Ina’s dishes are always a hit. She even knows how to transform the simplest ingredients into something special, like her tips for making the best lasagna or broccoli that will change your life.

In one of her cooking videos, Garten reveals her surprising trick for making meatballs extra juicy.

@foodnetwork

once you make ina’s classic meatballs and sauce, you won’t need another meatball recipe ever again! 🍝

♬ original sound – Food Network

The secret ingredient? Warm water

“I learned this trick from Rao’s, the famous Italian restaurant in New York,” Ina explains. “It keeps the meatballs so juicy, you won’t believe it.”

And Rao’s isn’t just any name in the culinary world; it’s also the maker of Ina’s favorite ready-made sauce.

How Ina makes her tender meatballs

But there’s more to Ina’s meatballs that makes them so delicious. Their tenderness also comes from the meat she uses and two types of breadcrumbs. Ina uses a mixture of three types of meat: pork, veal and ground beef. Pork alone already makes meatballs more tender because of its higher fat content, but the combination with veal works even better. If you avoid buying veal on principle, use a half-pork, half-beef mixture. My grandmother’s recipe for the ultimate meatball also includes veal kidney fat, by the way.

Two types of breadcrumbs

Next, she adds two types of breadcrumbs: fresh bread crumbs that she grinds herself in the food processor, and dried breadcrumbs. There are good reasons for this: she uses the fresh crumbs to keep the meatballs juicy, and the dry crumbs to help them hold their shape while frying, Garten explains.

Mixing with your hands

She then adds fresh parsley and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Wieke already recommended that cheese, because it adds an incredible amount of flavor. The rest of her meat mixture consists of one egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper. You can use a food processor to mix everything, but Ina prefers to use her clean hands. “A cook’s best tool,” according to Ina, and I completely agree (although I curse myself whenever I forget to take off my rings).

Frying in a spacious pan

She shapes the meat mixture into balls and browns them all over. And in small batches, so the pan doesn’t become overcrowded. Once the meatballs are cooked, she removes them from the pan, pours off the fat, and uses that same pan to make the tomato sauce.

For this, she sautés onion and garlic, deglazes the pan with red wine (scraping up all the delicious browned bits), adds a can of crushed tomatoes and some herbs (my favorite: funghi trifolati). Then the meatballs go back into the pan and simmer gently in the sauce for another half hour.

Delicious with everything!

Delicious with spaghetti, delicious on their own (admit it, you already sneaked a few from the pan), and delicious on a sandwich. No complicated fuss, just fantastic, tender meatballs that no one can resist!

Read also:

• Avoid these 5 mistakes if you want truly delicious meatballs
• Discolored ground meat: eat it or throw it away?
• Recipe: Spanish meatballs for a tapas night

Source: The Kitchn