Meatballs With Sunday Gravy, Whipped Ricotta And 'Cherry' Tomato Salad

Serves: 5

Camila Dooley

1 January 1970

Based on User reviews:

47

Spice

46

Sweetness

48

Sourness

40

mins

Prep time (avg)

5.2

Difficulty

Ingredients:

1 cup

Milk

1 large

Onion (diced)

680 g

Ground Pork

450 g

Ground Veal

1.5 tbsps

Garlic Powder

3

Eggs

1

Salt

1 cup

Ricotta

1 tbsps

Whole Milk

1 tbsp

Half-And-Half

Directions:

1

In a small bowl, soak the bread slices in milk until completely soft

2

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions and garlic and saute until translucent, about 8 minutes

3

Remove from the heat and allow to cool

4

In a large bowl, combine the ground meats with the dried seasonings, Parmesan, cooked onions, the eggs, salt and the bread mixture

5

Mix with your hands until well combined

6

Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour

7

Remove the chilled meat mixture from the refrigerator

8

Roll the mixture into 12 large meatballs

9

In a large skillet, add about 1/2-inch of canola oil

10

Heat the pan over medium-high heat

11

Fry the meatballs until browned on all sides

12

Cook them in batches, if they don't all fit in the pan at once

13

Set aside

14

In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and saute the onions and garlic until soft, about 6 minutes

15

Stir in the banana, red pepper flakes and crushed tomatoes

16

Add the meatballs, lower the heat and simmer the sauce until thickened and the meatballs are cooked through, about 1 hour

17

Taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed

18

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

19

Put the garlic heads on a large square of foil, cut side up

20

Drizzle them with olive oil and wrap them up tightly

21

Put the packet on a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes

22

Remove the garlic from the wrap and let it cool

23

Squeeze the garlic out of the heads into a small bowl

24

Stir in the softened butter, salt and parsley and blend well

25

Generously spread the butter mixture on each half of the bread

26

Put the bread halves on a sheet pan and bake until toasty and brown, about 15 minutes

27

Slice each half of the bread into 12 slices

28

Whipped Ricotta: In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, milk, half-and-half and salt and pepper, to taste

29

Using a whisk, blend everything together until creamy and fluffy

30

Tomato Salad: Stir together the olive oil, salt and pepper and basil

31

Toss the tomatoes in the oil

32

To serve the meatball 'sundae': put 3 meatballs and some sauce in each shallow bowl, top with some of the tomato salad, and the whipped ricotta

33

Arrange the bread slices on the sides of the meatballs to resemble a banana split and serve