Italian Meatballs

This recipe was jotted down from James Barber's cooking show, The Urban Peasant. He didn't actually give it a name, but I need to call it something, and Italian Meatballs was as good a description as any.

• one pound ground beef
• one onion, pretty finely chopped
• garlic, chopped
• a tin of anchovies
• one egg
• chopped parsley, and cut basil
• tin of whole tomatos
• grated parmesan
• half a cup water
• bread crumbs

Mix ground beef, onion, garlic, one chopped anchovie, egg, salt and pepper in a bowl to get a nice sticky mess. If it's too dry to stick together properly, add another egg. Form into small balls, roll in flour, and place in a hot pan with a bit of oil. Cook quickly, turning over to brown all around. To make the sauce, add to the pan parsley and basil, tomatos, remaining anchovies, parmesan, water, and bread crumbs to thicken it to taste.

Brian's Comments

I'd never cooked with anchovies before, and picked them up for this on a whim, as James likes to say that if you're cooking Italian, you have to use anchovies. I'm glad I did, as I really enjoyed the flavour of this meal, so don't wimp out on the anchovies.

Also, make sure you chop the onion reasonably fine, or it's more difficult to get the meat to stay in balls.

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Italian Meatballs

Brian Edmonds <brian@gweep.ca> February 22, 1998