The interior of The Meatball, a beloved family recipe that Rich Leone likes to cook and share. Photo by Rich Leone

The Meatball — every Italian American family has a recipe for one, some have more than one. In my family, a proud Sicilian American family, our meatball originated with the family matriarch.

Francesca Battaglia made her meatball with lots of garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, a blend of ground pork and beef, breadcrumbs, red pepper flakes and eggs. The ingredients are simple, but her cooking techniques elevated the eating experience. She formed her meatballs into oblong shapes, reminiscent of footballs, and she always fried them in a mix of canola and olive oil. The pan-fried, oval meatballs had a crunchy outer shell and a soft and juicy interior full of garlic and cheese.

Francesca Battaglia, Rich Leone’s great-grandmother, meets Pope John Paul II. Photo courtesy of Rich Leone

Though most of my family bases their version of the meatball on her recipe, they’ve largely dropped the pan frying. Instead, they simply bake the meatballs in the oven. They also skip the shaping of the meat into footballs, instead going for the usual spherical ball shape. But baking the meatball doesn’t achieve the crust that the fry does, and the even, indirect heat of the oven won’t seal in the juices as frying will. With the baked version, more of the meat’s moisture escapes, resulting in a dryer meatball.

Leone kept the traditional oblong shape of the meatballs in his adaptation of the recipe. Photo by Rich Leone

I’ve kept Francesca Battaglia’s meatball shape and technique, but I have deviated from her recipe, out of necessity, in one major way. I substitute gluten-free breadcrumbs for the regular breadcrumbs she calls for. I went gluten free in 2013, and since then, I’ve been working to adapt my family recipes – the various Sicilian American foods, and other important foods of my childhood and family history – to be gluten-free.

I took inspiration for my adaptation from the origins of the meatball. Meatballs were born of a need to use everything and to stretch however much meat you had to feed large families. Originally, stale bread was just a filler. It also gave the meatballs a spongy texture, depending on the bread-to-meat ratio. The more bread, the spongier the meatballs got.

My great-grandma was notorious for her heavy bread-to-meat ratio, but that was because she started making the recipe during the Great Depression when she had to really stretch any food she had. She came over from Sicily to Ellis Island on the Madonna in 1920 and spent her the rest of her life living in the Northeast.

Gluten-free bread doesn’t go stale in the same way that regular bread does, so I cut my gluten-free bread into cubes, toast it in the oven until it’s dried out (but be careful not to burn it!) and then pulverize it into crumbs in the food processor. The resulting meatball is indistinguishable from the original.

These meatballs are great on their own. That said, when they are given a little time to stew in the sauce, a simple tomato sauce of basil, olive oil and garlic, they are transformed into the ultimate meatball: The crust becomes slightly tender and chewy, while the interior absorbs the sweetness and acidity of the sauce.

Francesca Battaglia’s Family Meatball

I prefer Pastene or Cento brand crushed tomatoes. If you are not making gluten-free meatballs, simply use 1 cup of any breadcrumbs. Enjoy the meatballs alone, with pasta, or in a sandwich.

Yield: 30 to  50 meatballs, depending on the size of the meatballs you form

For the meatballs:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef, 75 or 80 percent lean
2 eggs
2 cups finely ground gluten-free breadcrumbs (generally about ½ loaf of Udi’s or Trader Joe’s gluten-free white bread)
1 cup Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
1 bunch chopped Italian parsley
4-6 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
Black pepper, red pepper flakes and salt to taste

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced, crushed – whatever works for you
1 (28-ounce) can peeled, crushed tomatoes
4-5 leaves of fresh basil or 2 tablespoons dried basil
Salt and pepper, to taste

To make the meatballs, combine all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl or stand mixer and mix. If you’re doing this by hand, I recommend wearing food-safe gloves. Combine the ingredients until the mix is uniform and the ingredients are well combined.

Use an ice cream scoop or other tool to break off uniform amounts of meatball mix. Roll the mix into football shapes and place them on a pan or plate before frying.

Fill a large frying pan one-third of the way up with a mixture of two-thirds canola oil and one-third olive oil. Add a piece of garlic to the oil. Turn the burner on to medium temperature. When the piece of garlic begins to sizzle, the oil is hot enough.

Remove the garlic piece and add the meatballs, one at a time, to the frying pan, keeping a little space between them. Fry until a nice crust forms, 3-4 minutes per side, then turn the meatball to fry the other side. Once a nice crust has formed on both sides, remove the meatballs to a cloth or paper towel to absorb the surface grease.

Add to the sauce or eat plain.

To make the sauce, add the oil and garlic to a saucepan or pot over medium heat. When the garlic sizzles, add the canned crushed tomatoes. Add ½ can of water (using the tomato can) to the sauce. Tear the fresh basil (or use dried) and add it. Season with salt and pepper. Let sauce cook for 20 minutes at a fast simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently and being careful not to let it burn. Then turn the burner to the lowest setting until you’re ready to serve meatballs.

Optional: Add meatballs to sauce and let stew on low for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Rich Leone with his wife Jess and the couple’s daughter Emerson. Photo courtesy of Rich Leone

MEET THE COOK, RICH LEONE

I love to cook. I started cooking when I was young, and I learned by watching my parents, grandparents and great-grandmother cook. When I moved away from home, I wanted to eat those familiar foods and to share them with my friends, so I learned how to make our family dishes.

Today I stay connected with my family through food. We have a family text thread that is just the meals we make and the delicious food we eat. Other topics are not allowed. We share techniques, tips, tricks, and stories about the food we are making or eating, and at the end of the year we make a calendar that recaps the past year’s food adventures. Each member of the thread gets one as a Christmas present.

Though I’m still adapting my favorite foods to be gluten free, my daily cooking routine now focuses on what our 18-month-old daughter will eat. Our goal is to cook one meal we all can enjoy, instead of two. It can be challenging, but it’s very rewarding when I find something that she enjoys – so far broccoli, rice, potatoes, salmon, cod and blueberries, so that’s a good start. For now, she prefers her meatballs without sauce; apparently, so did I when I was her age.

I find cooking a good way to connect with people, past and present, and I enjoy bringing a smile to someone’s face through food. I work in the insurance industry. We recently moved to Portland from Old Orchard, so I’m learning a new kitchen and I’m excited to continue adapting family recipes and discovering new ones to share.