Roman Style MEGA Cheesy Meatball and Italian Meatballs with Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce

Hello and Welcome Back to Great Chow

This time around I wanted to do a tour of Italy specifically Pisa and Rome to conquer pressure cooked Italian meatballs with a delicious and rich sweet basil tomato sauce that you are sure to enjoy. I do use the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker. Anyone with a pressure cooker can absolutely follow along.

I have featured two amazing choices and recipe is the same for both.  The Roman MEGA Meatball is stuffed with pillars (sticks) of mozzarella cheese:

1. A novelty MEGA Meatball stuffed with Mozzarella Cheese (The Roman Style Mega Meatball) with an accompanying rich and delicious Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce. This Meatball is family style and has the “WOW Factor;” serves 4-5 people.

2.   Regular sized Sweet Italian Meatballs with Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce.

Gallery of Highlights – Italian Meatball Tour

Want to Watch the Full Episodes? From my YouTube Channel:Here they are “On-Demand” !

Roman Style Mega Cheesy Meatball with Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce

Direct Link on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BVzvZszhJ1g

Sweet Italian Meatballs with Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce

Direct Link on YouTube: https://youtu.be/L6zjchtDfbQ

Recipes and Directions

Meatball Recipe:

• 1 ½ lbs. ground beef (hamburger meat) – I use 85%
• 1 lb. Sweet Sausage
• ¾ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• ½ cup diced onion (Spanish or white onion)
• Teaspoon chopped garlic (I used jarred garlic)
• 1/2 cup of your favorite grated Parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
• One jumbo egg
• 1 Block of Mozzarella cheese (This ingredient is for the Mega Meatball)

Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce Recipe:

• (2) 28 ounce cans of tomato sauce crushed tomatoes in basil.
• Teaspoon tomato paste
• ¾ cup Cabernet Sauvignon ( excellent red wine to cook with, gives depth of flavor)
• Teaspoon chopped jarred garlic
• ½ cup diced onion
• Teaspoon onion salt
• Teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup fresh chopped basil
• Heaping tablespoon parsley
• Three Bay leaves
• 1 cup filtered water (this helps create the pressure in the pressure cooker).

Directions:

Regular Sweet Italian Meatballs:

• In a large bowl, combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl by folding them in by hand (preferable) or a spoon all ingredients.
• Obtain enough meatball mixture and roll palm-sized meatballs gently with either your bare hands or with a scooper and place the meatballs on a large plate and set aside.

Roman Mega Meatball:

• Combine the same meatball ingredients.
• Make 6 thick mozzarella cheese sticks (pillars)
• Divide the meatball mixture into 3 parts, create a base (like a big hamburger) and lay down 3 cheese sticks, create the second tier and lay that on top, lay down 3 more cheese sticks, take the remaining meatball mixture and lay that down on top layer two; now you have three tiers of “meatball deliciousness”.
• Using your hands go around the meatball and tighten up the gaps between layers. This will form one big uniform delicious Meatball.

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Directions for Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce:

• Turn Instant Pot pressure cooker on to the Sauté setting wait for the readout to read HOT, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pot).
• After 10 seconds the oil is Hot; add garlic, onion, tomato paste, kosher salt and sauté for two minutes periodically stir.
• Add Cabernet Sauvignon(red wine), give a big stir, and allow two minutes for alcohol to burn off and reduce. Periodically stir.
• Add the rest of the ingredients; crushed tomatoes in basil, sugar, grated Parmesan cheese, fresh basil, onion salt, dried parsley, three Bay leaves.  Give a very big stir, make sure stir the bottom of the pot as you want to incorporate the sauté flavors with the rest of the ingredients. Add the cup of water now.

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Cooking Directions:

• Turn Instant Pot pressure cooker off sauté (it was on Saute from making the tomato sauce).
• Regular Meatballs: Turn instant pot on to the manual setting and set the time for 12 minutes.
• Add meatballs carefully to the basil tomato sauce. lock the lid, place the vent to the seal position.
• After 12 minutes, vent, remove the lid. Remove meatballs.
• Get a deep ladle spoon and cup, skim out excess oil from the top.
• Give a big stir for about 5-10 min – Stir the bottom of the pot there are lots of flavors down there!
• Spoon on some fresh Tomato Basil Sauce, Garnish with grated Parmesan and dry parsley.

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• MEGA Meatball: Turn instant pot on to the manual setting and set the time for 35 minutes. After 35, Leave on low for 10 min, vent, open lid, allow 2-3 min for excess steam to exit.
• Place a plate to this side of the pressure cooker.
• Carefully using hand and finger protection remove the steam rack. Note: Remember that the steam rack will rock back and forth from its construction so get a sturdy handle before you fully remove.
• Get a deep ladle spoon and cup, skim out excess oil from the top.
• Give a big stir for about 5-10 min – Stir the bottom of the pot there are lots of flavors down there!
• Spoon on some fresh Tomato Basil Sauce, Garnish with grated Parmesan and dry parsley.

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• Serving Suggestions
• These meatballs can be served with spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine; any pasta you like.
• Garlic bread / toast is always a great idea
• If you want to Maximize your Deliciousness; you can spend the time stirring the pot of sauce after the meatballs are out for a good 10-20 min. This allows some of that excess water content in the form of steam to escape the pot, thus reducing the sauce causing a reduction which thickens up the sauce. It turns into a thick delicious sweet basil tomato gravy. It is so delicious.
  

  Final Thoughts on This Project – Please Read

• Filming and completing these episodes were so much fun and took me over 80 – 100 hours to do; from concept to finished production product. Animation at the end of the Meatball episodes were done by me too. It is very challenging and I am still learning so much about videography, motion / computer graphics, photography and animations. All of this while delivering delicious food, writing a vibrant functional blog and developing a functional trending YouTube channel (approaching 1 Million watched minutes!). It is worth it for everyone who enjoys Great Chow, You inspire me.

IF you would like to read a very interesting article Italian cuisine vs. French cuisine written my my great friend, master chef, food blogger and family man, Bernard. Click Here for the article Italian cuisine vs. French cuisine on his blog About the Chef. 

Thank you so much,

See you next time,

Jason (GreatChowJay)