This tender pork n’ veal ricotta meatball recipe is baked in a delicious and light Pecorino cream sauce and topped with a bright mix of fava beans and chopped fresh herbs — super easy, extremely tasty and very pretty.
Also, it’s a great dish for entertaining and feeding a crowd. Plate it for a fancier preso or serve rustic and family style. If you are looking for a Spring holiday dish, this would be lovely.
Okay, I’m just going to say it because you know I’m 49 going on 13 – it’s really, really hard for me to write a recipe about meatballs without thinking of a certain SNL skit. I sort of feel like an adolescent here trying not to laugh at every turn. But regardless of my truly prepubescent sense of humor, I still feel that this is an elegant dish, I just wish we could rename it? Any suggestions!?!
The most important tip to making meatballs is to mix the ingredients just until incorporated evenly. Overworked meatballs tend to be tough. I also think it’s a great idea to sauté a spoonful size portion of the meat mixture and taste the seasoning before forming into balls.
If you can’t find fava beans fresh or frozen, you can sub edamame which I often find vacuum sealed and fresh in the produce area. If you can find fava beans fresh, remember they need to be shelled and then individually popped out of their tough skins – blanch favas in salted boiling water for one minute and cool down immediately in an ice bath. Then pop each bean out of its skin before moving on with the recipe. (Also, little kids are really great at shelling and popping favas out of skin.)
Use a nice ricotta. It’s easy enough to make at home but if buying I prefer Bellwether Farms sheep’s milk ricotta. It has a lovely light consistency without being too watery and it does not have any weird thickeners in it. Many store-bought ricotta products have some sort of gelatin, so read the label!
I served the leftovers with a tricolore bitter greens salad with blue cheese crumble and a white balsamic vinaigrette the following day and is was still delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground veal
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2/3 cup fresh ricotta
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan, plus more for garnish
- 2/3 cup Panko crumbs
- 1 medium yellow onion, grated, juice squeezed out
- 1/2 bunch fresh thyme, leaves finely minced
- 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (you can add more if desired)
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup cream
- Meyer Lemon (just a squeeze over top at the end of baking)
- Garnish:
- 1 cups fava beans, blanched and shelled (sub edamame if you cannot find favas)
- 2 shallots, finely minced
- 1/2 bunch fresh herbs leaves, roughly chopped: dill, flat leaf parsley, mint
- Bull's Blood micro beet
Using one hand (a Ziploc bag works as a glove if need be) mix the following ingredients together in a large bowl: ground meats, grated onion, minced thyme, 1/4-cup Pecorino, drained ricotta, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg). And please sprinkle the seasoning over ALL of the mixture, don't dump in one place, because seasoning is very difficult to incorporate evenly and you do not want to overwork the meat mixture!
Once the meat base is lightly mixed, add the egg and mix in with your hand once again. It's important to taste the mixture before moving forward and I always sauté a spoonful on the stovetop in a little nonstick skillet to check seasoning. Adjust salt and pepper to the meatball base and mix a little more by hand.
Using an ice cream scoop, form mixture into meatballs, rolling in palms lightly to round. Plate on a plastic or parchment line baking sheet until ready to bake. Makes 25-30 golfball size meatballs.
Heat a large non-stick skillet on medium high heat, add a few tablespoons olive oil, when it shimmers add meatballs, leaving a little space inbetween, and brown on all sides in batches. Decant meatballs to two casserole dishes with at least 1 1/2 to 2-inch sides. Don't worry about cooking the meatballs all the way through on the stovetop, this is simply to give them color and create a nice crust.
When ready to serve, heat oven to 425F. Pour enough chicken stock into the casserole dishes to come up 1/3 to1/2-inch in the casserole dish, cover with aluminium foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and add 1/2 cup of cream to each casserole dish. Bake for another 10 minutes. When cooked and tender place meatballs on stovetop and sprinkle Pecorino generously on and around the meatballs, it will melt into the cream sauce.
In a small skillet, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil on medium high heat and sauté shallot until translucent. Toss in fava beans and warm through. Remove from heat and season with salt and toss in chopped herbs.
If serving family style, simply pour the warmed fava bean-herb mixture over top of the meatballs and add squeeze of Meyer lemon over top with a little extra Pecorino. Or plate 3 meatballs individually, spoon fava bean mixture over, squeeze of lemon and a little extra Pecorino with a spoon of sauce all around.
The micro garnish pictured above is Bull's Blood which is a micro beet green
