Almost every meatball recipe I’ve found requires you to cook the meatballs in some sort of liquid, most likely tomato sauce. This supposedly helps make your meatballs “extra moist”, but I say it just helps make your sauce extra nasty.

I’ve found a better way.

Cooking meatballs in a mini muffin pan ensures even browning and doneness–and excess fat drips down into the well where it can do no harm.

What you’ll need.

HARDWARE
Large mixing bowl
Grater
Dry-measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Round-bottomed coffee cup
Mini-muffin tins
Mini ice cream scoop (if you don’t want to get your hands dirty.

SOFTWARE (Ingredients)
1 pound ground pork
1 1/2 pounds ground round
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or a little more
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups dry breadcrumbs

A couple Notes:
-Many meatball recipes call for ground beef, ground pork, and sausage in order to keep the beef from becoming solid and burger-like. But since I often find myself without pork, sausage, or the motivation to go to the store I had to think of something else. With my technique you can get by with just ground beef although it is always optimal to mix in ground pork or ground turkey, which I find works excellently.
-higher fat content ground beef is better, do not get Lean beef, stick with ground round. The higher fat melts off but keeps the meatballs from becoming too hard, especially if you are only using ground beef.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. In a large mixing bowl and add the ground turkey (or pork), ground round, Parmesan, eggs, basil, parsley, garlic powder, red pepper, salt, and 1/2 cup of the breadcrumbs. Use your hands to mix everything together.
Tips
-Soak the breadcrumbs in milk, but be sure do drain the breadcrumbs as good as possible. We want soaked breadcrumbs, not breadcrumbs in milk.
-have warm water running in the sink, b/c the meat will make your hands cooooold!
-although not on the list, i like to occasionally sprinkle just a little mozzarella in the mixture (not required)
-fresh breadcrumbs or toasted bread work the best.

Using your hands, or a small ice cream scoop (its bowl holds just under 1/2 ounce), scoop portions of the meat mixture and shape into balls. Place some breadcrumbs in the bottom of a coffee cup and roll the meatballs in the crumbs, 1 meatball at a time, to coat well. Replenish the breadcrumbs as needed.

Place the meatballs in the muffin tins–one per cup–and bake, shaking the tins a couple of times, for 15 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.

This should make about 48 meatballs and they are soooo good. I believe Alton Brown has a similar meatball recipe, but it is just slightly more complicated. Picture coming next time I make’em.