I recently had a hankering for the Italian Meatballs recipe I developed as a newlywed, so I asked my husband to pick up a package of ground beef from the grocery store. You'd think after nearly 10 years of marriage I'd have now learned that it pays to be very specific when asking favors of him, but alas, he arrived home with a big. honking. 5-pound package of ground beef.
I hesitated for a second, and then I decided that now was as good a time as any to try my hand at a little freezer cooking...
Yessiree, I was not to be deterred by the fact that my largest bowl could barely contain all of my ingredients. I mixed and kneaded — making quite a mess in the process, I won't lie...
Finally I endlessly rolled meatballs until I was left with this lovely bowl of mini Italian meatballs, as well as three cookie sheets of larger meatballs. The latter I popped into the freezer to be consumed at a later date.
Romano cheese has a very salty flavor which means you don't need to add a lot of salt for seasoning. You could substitute Parmesan or Asiago, whatever strikes your fancy, but I prefer Romano in my Italian wedding soup, and that's where my mini meatballs were destined.
Five pounds of ground beef yielded enough mini Italian meatballs for one batch of Italian wedding soup and two large Ziploc bags of larger meatballs. However, you could easily halve it for a smaller family.
Printable Recipe ↓
Italian Romano Mini Meatballs
Ingredients
- 5 pound ground beef
- 1 container Romano cheese - 5-oz.
- 1 container bread crumbs - 15-oz.
- 2 cups fresh Italian parsley - chopped
- 8 eggs - slightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.
- Form into balls of desired size and refrigerate if using immediately.
- If you plan to freeze your meatballs, I've found the most successful method is to line them up on cookie sheets and place the whole sheet in the freezer. Once the meatballs are frozen solid, they can be transferred to large Ziploc bags so you can pull out the amount needed for any given meal.
Jennifer says
Tara... What is the recipe for just 1 lbs. of ground beef?
Tara says
I haven't made them with just one pound of ground beef, but here's what I've used with a 1.5-lb. package:
1.5 pounds ground beef
1/4 c. Romano cheese
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1.5 t. kosher salt
freshly cracked pepper to taste
Cindy says
Recipe looks great! I really want to try this, but I think I will stick with just the one pound package of ground beef! Ha Ha!