Meatballs are made all over the world with no precise recipes, everyone has their own way to prepare, cook and serve them. Meatballs were born to make edible and to utilize tough meat from adult and working animals before agriculture was motorized. Perhaps meatballs are the only dish where the main ingredient, the meat, is important only in name and in fact, the condiments mixed with the chopped meat produce a tasty morsel with such a blend of taste that it is hard to describe.

In Southern Italy, including Sicily,  meatballs were made to make the most of the hard leftover bread and the chopped meat was used, being the most inexpensive meat. The proportion between chopped meat and the amount of bread used in making the meatballs was related to the financial position and the wealth of the makers. Stale bread is moistened with milk or water and to cover-up its taste, garlic, onions, other vegetables, nuts, fruits, spices, and eggs are used and blended into the mixture.

As a child, I loved the meatballs that my mother made, as an adult, I could appreciate better the blend of flavors, highlighted by the occasional raisins or pine nuts, the crunchiness on the outside, the velvet softness on the inside and the faint taste of garlic, the sweetness of the onions, the sharp savor of the cheese and the slightly peppery flavor of the parsley. La signora Danila, my mother-in-law, made fried meatballs using leftover boiled meat. She used 2 cups of fresh breadcrumbs, coarsely diced, soaked in 1 cup of milk for every 2 lb. of meat with the addition of eggs, cheese, little garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper.

In Sicily beef is normally used, but in some parts of Italy the meat is a mixture of pork and beef. Spaghetti and meatballs is an American tradition; in my home we served fried meatballs as a supplement to a meager main course, or when on Sunday, we prepared ragù, the tomato sauce was enriched with polpette (meatballs), salsiccia  (sausages), pittinicchi (boned pork spareribs), cotenna (pork skin), a boneless loin roast stuffed with garlic. The ragù was a complete meal because the sauce was used as a condiment for the pasta and the meats were used as the entrée. Small meatballs can be served with a dipping sauce as an appetizer.