Food - Drink
Michael Symon Has A Secret Ingredient For His Meatballs
By KALEA MARTIN
Although most people use breadcrumbs to keep the texture of their meatballs soft, celebrity chef Michael Symon told TODAY that he relies primarily on ricotta cheese to guarantee tenderness. Symon says that the addition of ricotta, a technique he learned from his Greek-Sicilian mother, is effective in making meatballs juicy, because it increases the fat content.
Soft meatballs are ideal, but you don't want them to be so soft that they fall apart before you even get a chance to serve them. To prevent ricotta from making your meatballs soggy, stick to Michael Symon's ratio of 1½ pounds of ground meat to 1 cup of whole milk ricotta cheese.
The meat plays a major role in ensuring that the meatball stays in one piece during the cooking process, as the kneading process releases proteins. The proteins form a matrix that provides structure to the ingredients that can't otherwise hold their shapes, such as the ricotta, eggs, and breadcrumbs.