Meatballs with Ricotta in Tomato Sauce
"Do you like Italian meatballs? I’ve been fishing around for a while for a good meatball recipe and have found it in this one. The basic idea is to take a base of ground pork, mix in other meat such as ground beef, pork fat, pancetta or prosciutto, add herbs, bread cubes, ricotta cheese and eggs, then brown them on high heat in the oven, add some crushed tomatoes and cook on lower heat until they are done. The following is an adaptation from a couple recipes from San Francisco’s A16 restaurant (the book A16: Food + Wine and an A16 recipe in Food and Wine). We used half ground pork and half Italian sweet sausage, with some minced prosciutto for these meatballs. Sausage because of the seasoning and the higher fat content which will help keep the meatballs from drying out. The ricotta helps as a binder and also helps smooth out the texture and enrich the flavor. We’re meatball lovers here, so if you have a favorite meatball recipe to share, please let us know about it in the comments...."