Bon Appetit's Meatballs

1. Combine ground pork, Italian sausage, ground sirloin, and ground chuck in a large bowl. Mix them with your hands until thoroughly combined.

2. Soak bread chunks in chicken broth in a bowl until completely soft. Combine garlic and parsley in a mini chopper or food processor and grind to a fine paste. Squeeze the excess broth out of the bread, reserving the broth in a bowl, and add the bread to the meats along with the garlic and parsley paste. Gently mix in beaten eggs and grated Pecorino Romano cheese with your hands until fully incorporated into the meat mixture. If the mixture seems dry, pour in some of the reserved chicken broth.

3. Pinch off golf ball-sized pieces of the meat mixture and roll them into meatballs, taking care not to pack them too tightly, and set them on a baking tray. Depending on how big you make them, you should end up with about 30 meatballs.

4. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in two or three batches, brown the meatballs on all sides and drain on paper towels. If you're adding them to a pot of sauce, you may undercook them slightly, as they will finish cooking in the sauce.

Editor's Note:

We have determined the nutritional value of oil for frying based on a retention value of 10% after cooking. The exact amount will vary depending on cooking time and temperature as well as ingredient density.

Cook's Notes:

Look for sweet Italian sausage without fennel. The amount of garlic may seem a bit much, but if you look at the amount of meat and all the other ingredients, it's not. My mother uses less garlic but I prefer a little more. If you are looking to make this a little lighter you can cook them in the oven. It will change the texture but they will still be good. You probably won't need the whole loaf of Italian bread, depending on the size, so just use what's needed--about 1/2 to 2/3 of a loaf.

I use the meatballs in my Meat Gravy recipe. Brown the meatballs as directed and add them to the sauce about 1 hour before serving.