Making Meatballs / by Johnny Michael

Hi, I made meatballs. To get me going in the right direction, I asked my Mom for her Sicilian expertise and referenced this recipe from Gimmie Some Oven. Although, I tweaked a few things: I added green onions to my fresh breadcrumb mix and asiago cheese to the meatball mix. You’ll also notice I didn’t use eggs or garlic (garlic was in the sauce). Because these videos are all about making people laugh and teaching people (and myself) how to cook, I also planned a little trip to the Biltmore to crush a meatball off the tee at number 10. Boy was that fun.

Here are the ingredients I used:

For the meatballs:

Breadcrumbs
Green onion
Milk
Sweet onion
Parmesan cheese
Asiago cheese
Herbs (Basil, Oregano, Parsley)
1 LB Ground Beef
1 LB Ground Pork

For the sauce:

1 can crushed tomato
3 cloves of garlic
Olive Oil
Basil, Oregano, Parsley

Here is the recipe for the meatballs:

  1. Make the breadcrumb. Grind fresh dried bread and chopped green onions in a food processor.

  2. In a large bowl, soak the bread crumbs in milk. Use enough milk to cover the breadcrumb and soak for 30 minutes.

  3. Prepare the onion and sweet herbs (removing onion skin and herb stems) then grind in a food processor and add to the mixture.

  4. Finely grate the cheeses. Add to the meatball mix.

  5. Add the meats. Drop in the 1lb of pork and 1lb of beef.

  6. Mix everything together until it is sticky and combined. Cover and place in the fridge for an hour to make it easier to roll into meatballs.

  7. Form the meatballs with a scoop and your hands, place them on a prepared oven tray.

  8. Bake the meatballs at 425° for about 20 minutes (internal temp of 160°)

  9. Drop-in sauce and enjoy! (I prepared sauce the night before, then heated up and added herbs while meatballs were baking)


Meat ball art, baby! I also got around to taking some snazzy photos of these saucy balls and tossing them up on my Shutterstock account. Put these balls on your walls.

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Lastly, here are my rough storyboards to help guide and shape the shoot. A lot of planning and thought in my spare time goes into thinking through these. I’ve learned I have to have it pretty-well visually ingrained in my head before I start the process. I leave some open space for improv takes, or extra b roll angles, but if I stray too far from things I don’t need it starts to get stressful and feels like I’m wasting time. Plus, practicing the basic foundations of storyboarding helps me learn some basic tools of filmmaking and cinematography. My goal is to get a little better each and every time!

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