On going against tradition.

We made Sunday sauce the other day. It was a my birthday celebration and I had Dad over so we could cook together. Thought I should grab the bull by the horns and spend some time in the kitchen as he's getting older. The Sunday sauce is a rich Italian bolognese with many different kinds of meat in it. This time we put pork ribs, meatballs made with beef and pork, Hot Italian sausage and little chicken braciole. Dad reminded me that we needed to put a little hard boiled egg in the braciole. Dad gets ravenous now for some reason and was picking constantly and when the meatballs were done ready for the sauce he took one.

He says, "When ma-ma gave us a meatball it was always raw in the middle."

He explained because she would fry the meat balls and they were a little under done in the middle waiting to be put in the sauce. I bake my meatballs. Its difficult frying something spherical. They continually get little browned spots on them and turning and turning is laborsome. So I put mine in the convection at 425 and let them cook fast on the outside and they brown some, especially the bottom. It works fine but I don't come up with fried meatballs with a raw center kids can snack on. Dad was very suspicious.

Whats funny to me is how I truly wonder if it IS fine. Is there something that makes the fried meatballs better? Does a beautiful, cared for, attentively turned, fried, crusty meatball make the sauce better? I've done it both ways and to be honest I find the light browning of the meatballs in the oven to hit the sauce better. The browner, crustier balls I think don't soften as well in the sauce when it cooks. I like the meatballs to start melting in my mouth right away as they hit the tongue. So I do it my way. I'm always a little suspicious of myself when I go against tradition. Even if it tastes good.