My Italian Grandmother's "Secret" Meatball Recipe

Before we got married, my future wife asked her grandmother ("Nana") for her meatball recipe. Nana replied that she didn't have one. She just made them. Like most good cooks -- and Nana was one of the best -- she did not need recipes. She had learned to cook by cooking and tasting, not reading and measuring.

So my fiancee, Steffie, who had helped Nana shape the moist meat mixture into round balls since she was a child, spent one Sunday morning (the traditional day of the week for making meatballs to go with the pasta and sugo) with her grandmother in the kitchen to learn how to make the mixture. Getting the ingredients was not a problem. She knew very well what Nana used to make the family favorite -- but how much of each item to add was not so clear. Nana would add a handful of this, a bit of that, and then maybe another bit of this again as she went.

The next Sunday, Steffie returned to Nana's kitchen armed with measuring cups and spoons in addition to a notebook and pen, determined to demystify the process. Everytime Nana would go to add something to the mixing bowl, Steffie had her drop it into one of the small bowls she had put out on the table for that purpose. If she added some breadcrumb, it went into one bowl. Steffie would then measure it and write it down. Cheese in another. And so on. If Nana added more breadcrumb later, which she would do automatically, seeming to intentionally forget about the bowls, Steffie would grab her hand gently and have her drop the crumb into a bowl first, measure it, write down the amount added that time, and then pour the breadcrumb into the mixing bowl. She would then total up the amounts and come up with a recipe.

Not trusting instinct so much as science at the time, I insisted Steffie repeat the process several more times, average out the measurements, and create a more accurate recipe. What was amazing to us was that the amounts proved to be consistent over several weeks, and there was so little variation as to make averaging not necessary. What follows is Nana's basic recipe, with variations that she would sometimes use and some that Steffie has added in pencilled notations to the original typed (this predated computers) recipe as she became one of those good cooks who don't rely on recipes herself.