Recipe: March Meatball Madness with Quick Tomato Sauce

March 7, 2011, in an old red-brick warehouse along a picturesque canal in New Jersey, it was 41 degrees with a soaking rain. March Madness was on the horizon, and Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, the women behind the Canal House art and cooking studio, were busy making soul-warming meatballs. After all, who doesn’t like a good basketball game and a good meatball, especially when it’s made with veal, beef and pork? That lunch — along with almost 250 others — is documented in Canal House Cooks Every Day, the eighth book from the writing duo. “This was our version of a blog,” Hirsheimer says. “We can’t help ourselves — we’re always taking pictures of food.”

March Meatball Madness with Quick Tomato Sauce

• 6 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
• 1 pound ground veal
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lots of nutmeg. Remove from heat and let cool. Put the eggs and half-and-half into a large bowl and beat together until well mixed.

Add the bread crumbs and the cooled onions and mix together. Add the veal, beef and pork and mix well. Roll into 1-ounce balls — the size of a golf ball. (They’ll be soft, but will hold their shape when cooked.) Arrange on 4 large baking pans. Bake until just cooked, about 20 minutes. Serve with sauce (recipe below).

Yield: 100 meatballs

Recipe: Quick Tomato Sauce

• 4 Tbs. salted butter
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 bay leaf
• Leaves from 1 sprig rosemary, minced
• 2 cups canned whole Italian tomatoes, crushed
• 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

Melt the butter in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft and translucent, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Add the bay leaf and rosemary. Add the tomatoes, reduce the heat, and gently simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the parsley and adjust the seasonings. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Yield: 2-3 cups

Per serving (about 8 meatballs, 1/4 cup sauce): 348 calories, 10g carbohydrates, 26g protein, 23g fat (8g saturated), 2g fiber, 125mg cholesterol, 234mg sodium