Mario's Breadcrumbs

[bluejeanz]

I think the point is that they are saying, "don't be intimidated by food, get into the kitchen and cook.
If buying ready made breadcrumbs will get you in there, great!
If you're too afraid of working with yeast and making pizza dough, get some from you local pizzeria, and cook!

I agree. I'm not such a food snob as to pass up buying a ready-made product every now and then but I do enjoy making things from scratch. I'm so used to it that I am sometimes shocked at the simplest things that some don't even know how to do. I took cream puffs to work one day and no one believed that I made them. I know when you work a full-time job and have a family to take care of sometimes you have to forego some 'scratch' items and reach for the ready-made cause there's just not enough hours in the day.

I think making pizza dough is so darn easy that it's a crime to buy it but that's just me. I did try twice it from TJ's but didn't care for it at all.

[bluejeanz]

In Italy, the Nona's use slices of bread and soak them in water or milk. Then they tear them apart and mix them into the meatball "meat" (I put the word meat in quotes because them make meatballs out of many things other than beef, pork and turkey).

That's how my mom always made them and I learned from her. I made meatballs for Easter (again) this year. Last year our family got tired of the usual ham dinner and wanted something different so somehow we decided on pasta and meatballs. This year we continued our new 'tradition'.

I know there are different ways to cook meatballs but I think they turn out best when I just drop them raw into the sauce. I know there are pros and cons to it. This time there were so many meatballs that I baked them in the oven first and got them browned a bit. I didn't think they had either the fine, moist texture nor the flavor that they usually have so I'm going to stick with the original way from now on.

[Food Network Fan]

This must have been the spaghetti and meatball Easter. You are the second member saying that's what they had. You could have shaped the meatballs like eggs.

We had Lasagna for Christmas one year. One of my daughter's friends thought that was strange.

[bluejeanz]

You could have shaped the meatballs like eggs.

Believe me, some of them actually were. They were nice and round when they went into the oven but maybe I erred when I turned them over halfway through and they were all lopsided.

My three granddaughters had their boyfriends over for Easter dinner and I can't even imagine what they thought, LOL.

[Clove]

Believe me, some of them actually were. They were nice and round when they went into the oven but maybe I erred when I turned them over halfway through and they were all lopsided.

BJ,

It's very difficult to get round meatballs if you bake or pan fry them. If they are slightly lopsided and taste good, no one will notice.

If you want a more round polpetti, you can cook them from raw in a simmering sauce for 25 to 30 minutes. They won't have the crust but they'll be round.

[Food Network Fan]

You can deep fry them and they will be round ... and extra fattening. Or if you bake them you can rest them on mini muffin pans like Alton does ... then they stay round.

[bluejeanz]

BJ,

If you want a more round polpetti, you can cook them from raw in a simmering sauce for 25 to 30 minutes. They won't have the crust but they'll be round.

That's how I normally cook them (see my previous post) but since there were so many, this time I needed the "shrinkage" before before they went into the sauce. I think cooking them directly in the sauce makes for a much tender meatball.