In a few days it will be carnival, one of the most cheerful and joyful celebrations in countries with a Christian tradition like ours. It is in fact characterized by the festive masked parades that animate the streets of the cities throughout the peninsula. Even at the culinary level, there are numerous traditions linked to the carnival. Today we talk about the meatballs of carnival, typical dish of the kitchen associated with this holiday especially in Calabria. The Meatballs they are one of the most “versatile” dishes of Italian cuisine, they can be made in countless ways. The meatballs, made with simple ingredients, enhance the tradition of peasant cuisine.
Typical of the Mardi Gras banquet, in our recipe they are made with pork. Etymologically, the word carnival derives from the Latin carnem upbeat (there are also other hypotheses), that is to eliminate the meat, which would indicate precisely the last banquet before the beginning of the period of abstinence and fasting of Lent. For this reason, these delicious meatballs cannot be missing from the Mardi Gras menu.
The recipe for making carnival meatballs
Let's see how to prepare them. The ingredients to make about thirty meatballs the size of a billiard ball are:
- 1 kg of minced pork, better if not too lean
- 200 gr. of fresh sausage
- 500 gr. of stale bread soaked in water and squeezed well
- 5 whole eggs
- 200 gr. of grated pecorino
- a minced clove of garlic
- a sprig of chopped parsley
- salt
Before the meatballs we prepare the sauce in which we will cook them. Chop a red Tropea onion and a clove of garlic and sauté.
We add a little chilli in order to give aroma and not spiciness and then abundant tomato sauce. During cooking we also add a few basil leaves and water from time to time in order to keep the sauce fairly liquid.
To make the meatballs, gather all the ingredients in a fairly large container and knead them until a good amalgam is obtained.
The dough should be soft and compact. At this point we form the balls of the desired size, in our case they will be the size of a billiard ball. Once the dough is finished, we can proceed in different ways. Before passing them in the sauce, we can fry them in abundant boiling oil or put them in the oven so that a little crust forms.
Let's cook them directly in the tomato sauce over very low heat, for this, the sauce must be quite liquid. The meatballs will thus remain extremely soft. Cooking must last at least forty minutes, it will vary according to the size of the meatballs. Once cooked we serve hot and with plenty of sauce.
The excess sauce will be great for seasoning pasta.
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