Meatballs

In our saute pan, we heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. We cook the onions on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until translucent and golden. We add the garlic and some salt and saute for another minute. We spread this mixture onto a plate and quick-chill it in the fridge.

We take out two dinner plates and put some additional bread crumbs on one of the plates for coating the meatballs. When the mixture has cooled, we mix it with the meat, parsley, breadcrumbs, cheese, eggs, milk, and some more salt and pepper in a large bowl. The best way to mix it is with our hands, although it is a bit messy. With moistened hands we form a meatball into a 1.5 inch ball. We rub the meatball in some breadcrumbs to coat the outside. This helps to keep the very moist meatball from sticking when pan-fried. We place the meatball on the clean plate, and continue with the rest of the meat. We form 17 meatballs in all.

We heat our tomato sauce over medium-low heat, partially covered. Next, we heat 1.5 tablespoons olive oil in a clean saute pan on medium heat. We begin by frying 9 of the meatballs. We put them gently in the pan and cook them on one side for about 2 minutes, and then rotate them. We brown all sides, about 6 minutes total. We drain these on paper towels while we fry the rest in the remaining olive oil. We place the almost-cooked meatballs in the tomato sauce and simmer gently for at least 15 minutes.