Meatballs

Not the movie, but an actual recipe. I've been on a meatball kick lately.

Actually, it all started a few months ago when I wanted to make albondigas soup (Mexican Meatball Soup).

So here's a loose recipe for a few different types that have worked lately. Our friends Jen and Steven loved them when we went to see "Being There" at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Saturday night.

Everything starts w/ 2 lbs of ground beef (of choice), a couple of eggs and breadcrumbs. Then:

Albondigas - cilantro, olive oil and garlic in a blender or food processor, make a pesto of sorts. Then mix that into the meat.

Putanesca - black olive tapenade, basil, garlic, red pepper flakes mixed into the meat.

Fatty balls - crumbled bacon, basil, garlic, grated parm, green onions chopped fine mixed into the meat.

Roll into little balls. Fry up in a pan with some olive oil. shake the pan every five minutes over medium heat, so that they're brown on all sides.

For the albondigas, I add them to a soup w/ broth, onions, celery, carrots. For the putanesca, I do a spicy marinara to serve them with and for the fatty balls, maybe a nice homemade ketchup (large can of tomato puree, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, plus other spices of your choice - look on the food network website for a real recipe, either Jamie Oliver's or Emeril's habanero/orange).

I'll put the recipe in a later post.

Mmmm...