Tiny Meatballs

• Tiny Meatballs
• 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup basil, finely chopped
• 1/2 head of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup ricotta
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 pounds italian sausage, uncased.
• Kat's Marinara
• 2 28 oz can's whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 vidalia onion, cut in 8ths
• 1 stick of salted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 head of garlic, peeled
• 1 cup broth (I like the bone broth)
• 2 dried chile's
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 4 sprigs parsley and basil
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley and basil
• 1/2 bottle of red wine (chianti, montepulciano, something lighter)

1. So I threw my whole peppercorns, dried chile and herbs into my blender to combine them which to be honest didn't work, don't do that. Next time I will put the peppercorns and the chile in the spice grinder and finely dice the herbs and combine in a bowl with the breadcrumbs, salt, and nutmeg. "If you don't have a spice grinder, regular ground pepper and some cayenne or chile flakes are fine" in my best Ina Garten voice.
2. In a much larger bowl, mixing with your hands, combine the uncased sausage with the egg yolks and the ricotta. Then add your herbs, spices, and breadcrumbs. Do a test cook on a dime sized piece of sausage mixture, to test your seasoning and adjust where you wish. On a large sheet tray shape your meatballs, I did mine in maybe the size of a quarter in diameter.
3. I also coated my meatballs in cornstarch and fried them (3-5 minutes in a half inch of oil and then rolled them over for another 3 to 5 minutes) and then kept them overnight to use in my sauce the next day. This made about 110 meatballs, you totally could halve this recipe, this many meatballs was 12-14 servings.
4. In a big (preferably cast iron) pot heat two tablespoons of olive oil and toss in the onion followed by the garlic cloves to release their aromatics, put everything else in the pot, bring it to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cook for two hours stirring occasionally. You will probably need to add more salt.
5. If you want a heartier chunkier sauce you can really just use a wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes and the garlic, if you choose this method I would use cracked pepper instead of whole peppercorns, for a smooth sauce throw the whole cooked down mixture in the blender, make sure you dig out the bay leaves. I added the chopped herbs after pureeing to give my sauce some more color. If you're serving this with your meatballs add them in to heat the meatballs up again, serve with fettuccini or a big rigatoni and parmesan.

meatballs, parsley, basil, head of garlic, breadcrumbs, ricotta, nutmeg, egg yolks, salt, pepper, cayenne, italian sausage, tomatoes, vidalia onion, butter, salt, bay leaves, head of garlic, broth, peppercorns, parsley, parsley, red wine

Taken from food52.com/recipes/81893-tiny-meatballs (may not work)