Veal Meatballs in Chianti Sauce
These are truly the best meatballs I have ever had. And I have to admit, I’ve had many varieties over the years (OK, I just realized that sounded dirty, but really not what I meant!). You can really taste the wine without “tasting: the wine, if that makes any sense. The slow roasting of the sauce cooks off most of the alcohol, leaving behind the richness of the grapes to co-mingle with the tomatoes and other flavors. While it takes a bit of time to make these (OK, it’s an afternoon of pouring your love into this recipe), it’s worth every minute. It really is a beautiful dish–but not too beautiful not to eat them up!
Servings Prep Time
30meatballs (or about 8 people) 30minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
2 1/2hours 90minutes
Servings Prep Time
30meatballs (or about 8 people) 30minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
2 1/2hours 90minutes
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
For the Sauce
Instructions
To Prepare the Meatballs
  1. In a small bowl, pour milk over breadcrumbs. Stir together and set aside for about 10 minutes.
  2. Using your hands (it’s the best tool for the job here!), mix pork, beef, and veal together in a large mixing bowl. Mix in salt and pepper, then paprika and cayenne. Next, mix in parsley, sage, onion, garlic and Parmesan. Mix thoroughly with your hands to incorporate all of the ingredients, but careful not to overwork the meat as it could become tough when cooked.
  3. Stir in breadcrumbs and milk mixture, as well as eggs. Mix thoroughly.
  4. Shape meatballs immediately into 1 1/2 – 2 inch balls, placing on parchment paper-covered baking sheet. See recipe note below for options if you are not cooking them immediately.
To Prepare the Sauce
  1. Heat large dutch oven over medium high heat (it needs to be big enough to hold the sauce AND the meatballs when finished). Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft, about 10 minutes.
  2. Stir in the tomato paste and fry it for about a minutes, stirring until incorporated. Pour wine and broth into pot and bring to a simmer. At that point, add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and rosemary sprig. Cook for 45-60 minutes until the sauce has developed a deep, rich flavor. Remove from heat, remove rosemary stem, and puree with an immersion blender (or in batches in a standing blender) until smooth.
To Cook Meatballs
  1. Place meatballs (still raw) in the pan of sauce and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover and cook on low for 30-45 minutes, or until meatballs are fully cooked through (no longer pink inside).
  2. Serve as their own course, or over a starch like pasta or polenta. Add a glass of great Chianti, and everyone’s happy!
Recipe Notes

OK, so I have several notes for you on this one.

1. As mentioned at the beginning of this long recipe, if you object to (or can’t find) veal, you can simply increase the amounts of the beef and pork to 3/4 lb. each to make up the difference.

2. For the meatballs, you can make them ahead of time and freeze them (uncooked) for up to a month.  You can also make them a couple hours ahead and simply refrigerate them until you’re ready to drop them in the sauce.

3. Also with the meatballs, this recipe makes a lot of them.  Go with it.  The fully-cooked ones, with the sauce, also freeze very well.  Make the full amount and any extra meatballs are ready for when you need a hearty and easy dinner at your fingertips (and in your freezer).

4. Full disclosure on the wine I recommend here–we stayed at this fantastic vineyard called Fattoria Viticchio when we went to Tuscany a couple years ago.  It was a perfect location for exploring the rest of Tuscany, and of course, the wine was so darned good.  We are very lucky that stores like Total Wine and other large distributors carry many of their wines, so we can have a flashback to that trip any time we want.

5. For the sauce, the immersion blender will be your best friend if you have one handy.  Don’t have one yet?  Check out this one.  It’s one of my two that I have on hand (yes, I have two.  So what??).