Nana’s (Eggplant) Meatballs
Ingredients
o 2 lbs eggplant
o salt
o olive oil
o 2 cups breadcrumbs
o 1 cup shredded parmesan
o 2 tsp dried parsley
o 1 tsp salt
o ¼ tsp pepper
o 2 eggs, beaten
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400º.
2. Slice the eggplant into thin rounds. Lay the rounds on a clean dish towel then sprinkle each round with some salt (this helps draw out some of the bitterness of the eggplant). Leave the rounds as is for 15 minutes then pat dry with the dish towel.
3. Drizzle some olive oil on the eggplant, then place the rounds on a baking sheet and bake for 24 minutes.
4. Let the eggplant cool slightly then blend in a food processor or blender until mostly smooth.
5. In a large bowl, combine the puréed eggplant, breadcrumbs, parmesan, parsley, salt, pepper, and eggs.
6. Form the meatballs! You can make them whatever size you’d prefer, but I generally aim for the size of small golf balls.*
7. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Once hot, cook the meatballs, rotating every few minutes, until you have your desired char.
8. Enjoy the meatballs warm over spaghetti, in a meatball sub, or just as is!
Notes
*If the meatball dough seems too wet so that you can’t form proper balls, add in more breadcrumbs.
Meatballs were one of the things I missed most when I stopped eating meat because I loved my nana’s homemade meatballs so much. Her meatballs were so incredible that I stopped eating anyone else’s because they never even came close to hers. I then decided to try her recipe, but with eggplant instead of the ground beef, and discovered that these taste just as delicious. This is my nana’s exact recipe (though she uses “handful” as a measurement) with the only change being the eggplant. If you’d prefer the real deal meatballs though, use 3 lbs of ground beef, but I promise the eggplant ones taste just as good.
