Italian Meatballs
Savory and flavorful, these Italian meatballs are a fan favorite. Based on my Grandmother's recipe we've adapted these meatballs to be Gluten-free. Freeze well. De-thaw by placing frozen meatballs in tomato sauce while sauce simmers.
Servings: 25 -30 meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 gluten-free baguette
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1-2 tablespoons Curley Italian parsley finely chopped (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic/ halved
- Fresh rosemary spring optional for frying
- Olive Oil - for frying
Instructions
- Place bread in a small bowl. Cover with water and soak for about 5-10 minutes, then drain water and squeeze out excess water out. Then break or cut soaked bread into 1/4 inch or smaller pieces.
- Mix all ingredients (except garlic cloves) together with you hands until well combined.
- Roll mixture into 1 1/2 -2 inch balls
- **See Optional Note before proceeding to cook all meatballs
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Olive oil should be about 1/4 inch deep so that meat will fry but not be fully immersed.
- Add garlic and rosemary and cook for 30 seconds.
- Then place meatballs in saute pan and cook approximately 2 minutes, rotate and cook the next "side" 2 minutes, continue rotating and cooking until all sides browned and cooked. NOTE: meatballs should not touch one another and depending on the size of your skillet, you may need to cook in batches. My skillet requires two batches of cooking.
- **Optional: Do a test run! We will often roll up just one or two meatballs, cook them up and taste. Feel free at that point to add more spices or cheese or bread to adjust to personal tastes.
- Let cooked meatballs cool on plate covered with paper towels, cover meatballs with paper towels and layer as you make more. Cooling on a paper towels absorbs excess oil.
- Store in freezer: Lay a piece of wax paper on a piece of foil. Place meatballs on wax paper. Close up foil into a packet. Place meatball packet in a large ziplock bag. Freeze.
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When making meatballs, can you use, other than bread crumbs, crackers made with almond flour? I am new at this. Every receive gives more knowledge. Thanks. I am still having problems figuring out corn. I opted for the almond and coconut flour, but that is as far as I have ventured
I don’t think almond flour would work… it really needs a bread of some kind.. is there any you like you can try in the recipe?
There has got to be a way to make gluten free meatballs. The only other recipe I have seen is one that you roll the balls in ground bits of bacon rinds, and crumbled bacon. I finally got the old oats, which we always used, but no recipe? Any more ideas? Thanks
We make these allll the time. Have you tried these?
What Gf baguette do you use?
Hi! I just made the gf meatballs and they were quite tasty. Is it possible to bake the meatballs in the oven?
Happy you enjoyed them! If you bake them, spray well with olive oil to try and get the flavor and crispness. I might try air frying them.