Cooking is a personal experience, and there’s nothing better than sharing home-cooked Pork, Veal, and Beef Pesto Meatballs with the people you love.
This recipe turned out fantastic! It came out so perfectly that I was motivated to try cooking some more, and long story short, here I am today, sharing one of my favorite recipes, with just one exception: rather than just use lean ground beef, this time around, I decided to use a combination of meats to make pork, veal, and beef pesto meatballs. The end result – heavenly!
The Best Pork, Veal, and Beef Pesto Meatballs
Print RecipeIngredients
- ½ pound ground lean beef
- ½ pound ground lean pork
- ½ pound ground lean veal
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- ⅓ cup plain Italian breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup yellow onion
- ¼ cup mozzarella
- 1½ tablespoon pesto spread
- Sea salt, coarse black peppercorn, basil and parsley to season
- Extra virgin olive oil to fry
- 48-ounce tomato sauce for serving
Instructions
1. In a food processor or blender, mince yellow onion until puréed. With a cheese grater, grate fresh Mozzarella into fine shreds. Set both aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine meats, egg, egg white, breadcrumbs, onion, cheese, pesto and seasonings. With wet hands, weave together ingredients until well mixed. Keeping hands damp, roll the mixture into 15 meatballs (about the size of two golf balls).
3. In a large skillet, heat several tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over a medium-high flame. Making four at a time, cook meatballs until well browned on all sides, almost to the point of crisp (you will need 10minutes per batch). When finished, rest on a paper-towel-lined plate to cool.
4. When all meatballs are cooked in a large pot, heat tomato sauce to a low boil. Add meatballs to the sauce and lower flame, allowing the combination to simmer for 1 – 6 hours. When ready, plate and serve over pasta or with a side of bread.
Notes:
If possible, have a splatter screen handy when frying. To know meatballs are finished, always remove one ball from each batch and cut through the middle. When the inside has no pink coloring, they are fully cooked. Wash off skillet in between batches to discard any burnt bits left behind, then re-coat with extra virgin olive oil before frying again.
