Every home cook has those go-to meals that their friends and family can’t get enough of. For me, it’s my Italian meatballs that I learned in the kitchen with my mother. While standing at my mother’s side, she would fry batch after batch of meatballs. But only after taste-testing the first one to make sure it was seasoned correctly.
I love carrying on this tradition, and relish sharing this special meal with my loved ones. When my close friends hear I am making spaghetti and meatballs for Sunday night dinner they will drop everything to come join us for dinner. The husband isn’t always so eager to share this coveted meal.
Last week for the first time I served up spaghetti and meatballs for my pasta-loving daughter. She typically gobbles up pasta with sauce pretty quickly, but this time she voraciously ate 5 entire portions of chopped up spaghetti with bits of meatballs. I was a proud mama.
One of my favorite parts about whipping up a large batch of meatballs and sauce on a Sunday is having leftovers for the rest of the week. The husband and I often buy a crunchy loaf of fresh bread the next day and make meatball subs. It’s such an easy weeknight meal, especially when paired with a side salad or steamed broccoli.
But even after heaping bowls of spaghetti and meatball subs there were still more meatballs to be had. What to do with those last precious meatballs?
A light bulb went off and I thought: pizza! I have made non-dairy pizza with meatballs before, and it was good enough. But I wanted to make something really special. As I was mulling over what I had in my fridge and what might combine nicely with the meatballs I thought….eggs….arugula…and another great non-dairy pizza combination was born in my humble kitchen.
Tip: don’t skimp on the extra drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt – it really brings out the flavor of the unique pizza. And don’t worry if you don’t have a pizza stone – you can also use a baking sheet.
Ingredients
To make the meatballs:
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground veal
2 large eggss
1 1/2-2 cups unseasoned bread crumbs (preferably fresh)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp garlic powder
vegetable oil for frying
small bowl of cold water
tomato sauce of your choosing
To make the pizza:
1 store-bought pizza dough, left at room temperature 1 hour
flour for dusting
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 meatballs
1 cup tomato sauce
3 eggs
1 cup fresh arugula
olive oil for drizzling
thick sea salt
Special equipment: pizza stone
Directions
To make the meatballs:
In a large mixing bowl, combine breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, basil and garlic powder.
Add meat and eggs and mix thoroughly, but lightly, with hands; do not overwork the meat. Set the small bowl of cold water next to your working station.
Prepare a platter lined with paper towels and place next to the stove as you prepare the meatballs.
Working with just the palm of your hand, and not packing too tight, make fist sized meatballs and place on unlined platter. Use cold water to wet hands in between each meatball. Place meatballs in skillet, and brown on all sides until even.
When meatballs are all fried, put into a slightly simmering pot of tomato sauce to finish cooking through and absorb the tomato sauce flavor.
To make the pizza:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Once oven is fully heated, place pizza stone in oven for at least 30 minutes, or up to 60 minutes.
Working on a lightly floured surface, stretch pizza dough using hands and rolling pin until desired thinness and shape.
Using pastry brush or fingers, spread 2 Tbsp olive oil all over pizza dough.
Cut meatballs into rounds. Spread sauce evenly over dough. Place on pizza stone and cook 6 minutes.
Crack eggs into a bowl while pizza is cooking.
After 6 minutes, open oven and carefully spread eggs over pizza a few inches apart from one another. Put back into the oven for another 5-6 minutes.
Remove pizza from oven. Allow to cool 2-3 minutes.
Sprinkle fresh arugula over top of pizza. Drizzle with olive olive oil and sprinkle thick sea salt.
Serve immediately.
