Don’t you just love those big meatballs you get at restaurants! Meatballs at home are just so much work, but sometimes it is worth it to get your hands dirty so that you can have a big restaurant style meatball. These venison sausage meatballs fit the bill. However, this is a weekend kind of meal because mixing and forming meatballs can be a little time-consuming.
Truthfully, our venison stores are getting a little low. Last year, hubby only harvested three deer, the goal is usually five. And it’s okay, but our freezer is now down to a few roasts, several packages of chops and A LOT of mild sausage. There is only so many times one can make Super Easy Venison Tomato Sauce. So this weekend, we decided to make venison sausage meatballs instead.
Venison Sausage Meatballs
We started with two pounds of venison sausage. If you are not a venison fan, you could always make these with a ground sausage of your choice. Mix this with bread crumbs, chopped onion, minced garlic, Worcester sauce, milk and eggs.
Cook with Your Kids
Meatballs are a great opportunity to cook with your kids. Fortunately or unfortunately, both kids we delighted to help when I ask, so I put Sunshine to work making the Super Easy Tomato Sauce. This meant The Boy could get his hands really dirty (after he washed them of course) mixing the meat. (Boys are sloppy, look at all the breadcrumbs he “splashed” out!)
Sunshine was at the stove adding, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes and measuring the herbs. The great thing about the herbs that go into my tomato sauce is they are pretty forgiving, so she couldn’t make a mistake!
About the time that sauce was ready to just simmer, The Boy was done with mixing the meat mixture. So all three of us worked to form bigger than a golf ball sized venison sausage meatballs. Then, they were bored which was fine with me.
I didn’t want to heat the oven. (It is summer and hot. We living in an 1860s farmhouse, so no air conditioning.) I heated some olive oil in my 12.5 inch cast iron skillet (similar to this one and probably the most used pan in the house!) and cooked them on the stove top. As the sides browned up, I turned the sausage meatballs to insure that they cooked evenly.
Once they were cooked through (about 25 minutes), I added them to the sauce to cook a little more, just to let all the flavors work together. This is certainly an unnecessary step.
Eat & Enjoy
Serve over pasta or as a sandwich or eat them as they are with cheese! Freeze the extra meatballs in sauce or by themselves. We used about half for this meal and saved half for another meal. Suddenly a time consuming preparation became a quick weeknight meal for Meal Planning once we return to the busy school year.
So, give these meatballs a try and let us know in the comments below how you use them!
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| Prep Time | 60 minutes |
| Cook Time | 25 minutes |
| Servings |
mealballs (depending on the size)
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- 2 pounds venison sausage you can use any ground sausage
- 1-1/4 cups plain bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon Worcester sauce
- 1 medium onion, chopped about a cup
- 2 eggs
- 5-6 cloves minced garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil use more as necessary
Ingredients
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- Mix all ingredients thoroughly except the olive oil.
- Form into balls a little bigger than golf ball size.
- Heat the olive oil in a heavy (cast iron) skillet over medium heat. Add meatballs to the hot oil. Cook until brown and then turn as needed. About 25-30 (depending on size). Meatballs should be cooked through so there is no red meat in the center
You could choose to bake the meatballs instead of cooking them on the stove top. Preheat a 400 degree oven. Bake 20-25 minutes on a parchment line baking sheet until meatballs are cooked through. Turn once about half way through.
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