Because of their small size, they end up hopelessly
overcooked by the time any browning occurs. That’s why
meatballs are traditionally cooked with a two-stage process:
frying and simmering. A quick fry in a hot skillet will brown
their exterior, adding texture and flavor (shallow-frying in a
layer of oil gets you a more even layer of browning than
sautéing), while simmering them in a pot of sauce will not
only allow them to cook through to the center, but also add
plenty of meaty flavor to the sauce. A little give and take, if
you will.
For the sauce, I kept things simple, going with a basic
marinara flavored with oregano, red pepper flakes, and
garlic, all sautéed in a mixture of oil and butter (for more on
marinara sauce, see here).
But there’s one problem that more astute readers might
have caught—we have two separate but conflicting goals
here. Long simmering is good for the sauce—it helps build
in meaty flavor—but it’s bad for the meatballs—they end up
hopelessly overcooked. Those long-cooked pasta sauces
where the meatballs simmer on a back burner all day may
sound like a good idea, a romantic idea, even, but it’s not
the best way to go if tender meatballs are your goal. A
meatball’s interior shouldn’t ever get too far north of 160°F,
which means about 10 minutes of gentle simmering at the
maximum. But if you’re not simmering your meatballs in the
sauce, how are you ever going to develop good rich meaty
flavor in there? Ten minutes is not nearly enough time!
The solution? Take a few raw meatballs and brown them
in a Dutch oven to build a flavorful base for the sauce from
the get-go. Allowing the sauce to simmer for an hour with
nandana
(Nandana)
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