World's Best Meatballs. Really, It's True.

I often see recipes that claim they are the best, blue-ribbon recipes, always imitated but never the winner. I usually scoff at that but I made these meatballs the other day that were out of this world. To show you how serious I am about that, I'll go so far as to admit that my sauce wasn't all that. Not that I didn't lovingly prepare my sauce but I skipped the layers of pork and that was a mistake. But we're talking meatballs here. So...I usually make meatballs with ground beef but I decided to go all out and do the veal-pork-beef combo. I also watched a meatball-off this weekend on the Food Network and the winner put a whopping FOUR eggs in per pound of meat. I usually do one and I was wary of such excess so I settled on two per pound. I also added some chopped banana peppers for a little zing and a couple shots of vodka because, well, why not? It's delicious in vodka sauce, right?

1 lb ground beef, preferably chuck. Don't go all lean and healthy here
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground veal
olive oil
3 c. chopped onion
10-15 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/3 c. chopped banana peppers
3/4 c. romano cheese
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
6 eggs
A few glugs vodka, or milk, or wine
salt and pepper

Of course, caramelize the onions in olive oil for about 20-30 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a couple more minutes. Let cool. Mix all the other ingredients in together and let sit for about 15 minutes. I don't know why but it's better that way. I almost always bake them as opposed to frying them but I did both this time and I liked them either way. Some say that frying creates a nice brown crust that cannot be achieved in the oven. Mine have so much cheese and whatnot in there that, even in the oven, they get pretty golden and crusty on the outside as well. Plus, it's so much less work. I made this triple batch last week and I'm happy to say, my freezer is neatly stacked with delicious, cheesy, spicy meatballs. They should last me the next couple of weeks, at least.