— Maria Allen

So, uh, my mother's maiden name was Monte. So you have come to the right person. And some of you know that I spent a week at a cooking school last fall, uh, in Bari Italy. And so I have a couple of things here to show you. So the first thing I wanna say is if you're using breadcrumbs, whether you make them or buy them, hopefully you're using, I would get a panco whole wheat, but you're gonna toast them, uh, on the stove top. So they kind of just get a little bit of a better flavor. Um, I like using a darker bean. You can use pinto, you can use garbanzo. If you like alini, you mash them up really, really well. I like using beans. They stay together very, very well. Uh, I like using flax so that I would make the equivalent of, um, pretend that this is a pound of your produce. So I would use, uh, one or two eggs. And the ratio that I like is a table spoon of flax meal to three tablespoons of water. Let it congeal for a couple of minutes. It gives you a perfect, perfect, um, uh, solution. It comes out really, really good. If you don't like to use flax meal, you can also use chia seeds if you want. I, I prefer flax meal more than I prefer. Um, the chia seeds and then your spices that you like to use. Um, you know, how do you live without garlic? You don't. It's sort of like, you know, you are a pacemaker, uh, for staying alive when you're making Italian food. So fresh garlic, never, never in a tube. Never, never. That pre pre-made stuff that comes, um, in a jar. It just doesn't have the flavor. It doesn't give you the punch. Um, you can use a garlic press, you can mince it yourself. Um, you can just throw it in a hole if you want, and then afterwards puree with a, an aversion blender or whatever. And then, you know, there's basil, uh, there's some oregano who doesn't love oregano, uh, onion powder. Uh, sometimes I'll throw in a little bit of nutmeg, just a little bit to add a little bit of flavor. Sometimes you can go and buy Mediterranean spices already in a jar, um, that are good. It depends what you have on hand. Sometimes. Sometimes I cook by like what I feel like doing for the day. Um, a couple of weeks ago I did a, um, a marinara sauce, um, at plant stock. And I used, um, uh, a pisata, a bottle of Posada, which is raw tomato puree. And then to get my garlic to be absolutely perfect, I used a microplane because it just, um, infuses beautifully into the dish. Depends on what tomatoes you like. Here's the thing, you're gonna put your ingredients together, you're gonna know by how it feels. You're gonna roll it into balls, and then you're gonna let it air dry for about 20 minutes. And I like to cook them right in the sauce. And, uh, it works for me. Uh, it's how they cook meatballs in the south of Italy. Italy. However, you can roast them in the oven first, if that's your preference, and then add them to a, to a sauce. So, um, I think it, a lot of it depends upon, uh, what you like to do. Also, if you're making your own sauce with this, I also suggest that rather than adding sugar, like maybe your grandmother taught you to do, at least might, uh, I'll throw in a tablespoon or so of golden raisins. And the golden raisins, um, will disintegrate and give it a natural sweetness. There's a little bit of iron in the raisins, and, uh, when you put dark raisins in, they sort of change the eye peel of the sauce. So good luck, uh, pretend that, uh, you are at an Italian restaurant and you wanna make the best meatball ever, and I know you're gonna do it.