Meatballs

• 1.5 lbground beef · 90% lean
• 1/3 cuprolled oats · for the panade
• 1/4 cupwhole milk
• 1onion · grated
• 2garlic cloves · grated
• 1large egg
• 1/3 cupparmesan · grated
• 2 tbspflat-leaf parsley · chopped
• 1 tbspolive oil
• kosher salt · to taste
• black pepper · to taste
• 1.5 cupstomato sauce · for finishing, optional

Methode

1. 1

   Make a panade before you touch the meat

   Stir a handful of fine rolled oats into a few tablespoons of milk and let it sit for five minutes until it swells into a soft paste. This panade is the whole secret to a tender meatball: the soaked starch traps moisture and physically gets between the meat proteins so they cannot bind into a tight, bouncy mass as they cook. Blitz the oats fine first if you want a smoother crumb, or leave them for a rustic texture. Do this step first so it has time to soften while you prep everything else.

2. 2

   Use a meat with some fat, not the leanest mince

   Reach for 85 to 90 percent lean ground beef, or a mix of beef and pork, rather than the leanest mince you can find. A meatball needs a little fat to stay juicy and carry flavour through a bake, and the very lean stuff dries into pellets. If you want a leaner, lighter meatball, ground turkey thigh works, but keep the panade generous to make up for the missing fat. The fat is what makes them taste of something; do not fear a bit of it.

3. 3

   Grate the onion and garlic, do not chop

   Grate the onion on the coarse side of a box grater and microplane the garlic straight into the bowl, juice and all. Chopped onion stays in firm little pieces that steam and leave hollow pockets, and worse, it can stop the meatball holding together. Grated onion melts into the mix, seasons every bite evenly, and adds moisture. It is a small change that makes the meatballs taste seasoned all the way through rather than in patches.

4. 4

   Season hard and fry a test piece

   Add salt, black pepper, an egg, grated parmesan, and whatever herbs you like, then fry a tiny nugget of the mix in a pan and taste it before you roll the rest. Raw meat always tastes under-seasoned, and a bland meatball is the most common disappointment. The test piece is thirty seconds that tells you exactly whether to add more salt or herb while you still can. Season more boldly than feels right; the starch and egg dilute it.

5. 5

   Mix with a light hand and stop early

   Combine everything with your fingertips just until it comes together, then stop. Overworking the mix, or squashing it in a machine, develops the proteins and gives you tight, springy meatballs no matter how good the panade is. You want the mixture loose and a little tacky, barely holding. Treat it like you would a burger: the less you handle it, the more tender it stays. If it feels dense and paste-like in the bowl, you have gone too far.

6. 6

   Portion evenly and roll gently

   Use a scoop or a spoon to portion the mix into even balls, roughly golf-ball sized, and roll each one just enough to round it off with a light touch. Even sizing means they all cook through at the same moment rather than some being raw while others dry out. Wet your hands to stop the mix sticking. Do not compress them into hard spheres; a loosely rolled ball bakes up far more tender than one packed tight like a snowball.

7. 7

   Bake hot on a rack, do not shallow-fry

   Sit the meatballs on a wire rack over a lined tray and bake at 220C for eighteen to twenty minutes until browned and cooked through. The rack lets the fat drip away and hot air circulate all round, so they brown on every side without the constant turning and splatter of frying, and they come out lighter. A hot oven gives you real colour, which is flavour. Check one is 74C in the middle and pull the tray; they carry on cooking a touch as they rest.

8. 8

   Rest, then finish in sauce or serve straight

   Let the meatballs sit for five minutes, then either serve them as they are or slip them into a simmering tomato sauce for a few minutes to soak up flavour. Resting lets the juices settle back through so they do not bleed out at the first bite. If you are saucing them, do it briefly and off a hard boil so they do not toughen. They keep in the fridge for three days and freeze cooked for three months, which makes a double batch the easiest high-protein meal prep going.