cooking lesson #4—Instant Pot Italian-Style Meatballs

So, how are you doing? It is our 22nd day staying unsociably away from others and I am getting used to it. While I took the weekend off from writing, I was cooking and baking up a storm—more on all that later.

Today I want to talk about meatballs. I love meatballs and I love the convenience of having bags of them in the freezer so I can use them anytime with anything. My Instant Pot meatballs are fast to make—you don’t even need to brown them before simmering.

The secret to making tender meatballs is to mix lightly to just combine the ingredients. Over-mixing activates the naturally occurring myosin that makes meatballs tough and rubbery. Avoid over-mixing once the ground meats have been added to the egg and spice mixture.

After scooping and shaping the meatballs, bring the marinara sauce and water to a simmer using the Instant Pot’s sauté function, then pile the meatballs into the sauce. You’ll need to stack the meatballs on top of one another, but do avoid mashing them together. Depending on the size of your Instant Pot you may have to do this in two cook cycles.

Serve meatballs over pasta, polenta, or on sub rolls, or as an appetizer with Happy Hour. 

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking cycle time: 25 minutes
Yield:  About 90 mini-meatballs
 
Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cups yellow onion, minced
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup cream or whole milk
4 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
8 ounces uncooked Italian sausage (spicy or mild), casings removed (or ground pork)
1-1/2-pounds ground beef (80/20 or leaner)
1-pound ground veal
2 (24 ounce) jars marinara sauce (Rao’s is best)
2 cups water or red wine
 
Instructions

1. Add the olive oil to a small pan and lightly sauté the yellow onion until just beginning to brown. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs and cream together.
3. Combine the garlic, Parmesan cheese, panko, oregano, thyme, chile flakes, salt and pepper; blend well and then add to the cream/egg mixture.  Add the cooled onions to this mixture.
4. Remove the casings from the Italian sausage, if needed, and add the sausage, ground beef and veal to the bowl.

1. Gently mix with your hands until just combined. Do not overmix.
2. Scoop and shape the mixture into 90 walnut-sized meatballs (about 2 tablespoons each), and place on a plate or baking sheet.
3. Set the Instant Pot to SAUTÉ bringing the marinara sauce and 2 cups water (or wine) to a simmer.
4. Add the meatballs to the simmering sauce, stacking them but avoiding pressing them into each other. Turn off the Sauté function.  Note: Depending on the size of your Instant Pot, you might want to cook them in two cycles; you can use the same sauce.
5. Lock the lid on and make sure the pressure valve is set to seal. Set to HIGH pressure for 10 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes to come up to pressure. When the cook time is up, let the pressure naturally release for 5 minutes. QUICK RELEASE the remaining pressure.
6. Using a slotted spoon, remove the meatballs from the cooking sauce and let them cool on a rack, plate or sheet pan. When the meatballs have cooled, place them in plastic bags and freeze. 
7. Transfer the remaining sauce into a container and refrigerate.  Before using remove the congealed fat from the top of the sauce and discard. You can use this sauce for your next pasta and meatball dinner.

ChefSecret:  To make sure you have nice tender meatballs be careful not to over mix once you add the meats to the wet ingredients.
Storage: Meatballs can be frozen for up to 3 months.

#Meatballs #InstantPot #Appetizers #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

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