**Creating Perfect Meatball Sliders**

To start making perfect meatball sliders, I go through measuring out all the balls and then proceed to roll them into nice little meatballs. I just kind of bounce them back and forth in my hand gently, kind of compressing them without making them dense and sealing up all kinds of gaps. This ensures that the entire ball is sealed like you work with dough, using the palms of your hands to shape the dough into a ball.

I don't like to use water or anything; instead, I rely on the tackiness of my hand to help the ball seal. As I work, I can tell if they're holding their shape as a ball, and if so, I know they'll be perfect for frying. Before we fry the meatballs, I want them to have a little bit of a fried basil garnish, so I'm going to get some olive oil in enough to fry the meatballs in. But before the meatballs go in, I just want to toss some big basil leaves and fry those until they start to see the leaves transform into like a dark deep forest green.

As you see the leaves make that transformation, you want to get them out of the oil as they'll continue to crisp up as they dry. Once I've got the basil out, I just want to add the meatballs and cook them until they're browned. They're going to finish cooking in the sauce, where I really just want to develop color and flavor. When flipping the meatballs, I kind of use a flicking method so that I don't have to squeeze them too hard or break them up in any way.

As the meatballs are browning, they'll eventually be added directly to the sauce, where they'll simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes until they're cooked through and nice and juicy. You don't want to cook meatballs forever; they'll either get dry or eventually they'll start to fall apart. Now, while those meatballs are simmering, we can make our whipped ricotta.

To make the whipped ricotta, I'm just going to add about two cups of the rigotta to a food processor and add a little bit of salt and some olive oil. Then, I'm just going to whip that up until it's nice and smooth. This recipe is cold, so I keep it in a ziploc to make sort of like a makeshift piping bag.

**Assembling the Sliders**

Now that our meatballs are perfectly cooked, we can toast up some slider rolls. We'll pipe out a little bit of whipped ricotta on the bottom and top of the slider rolls, followed by a little bit of fresh basil. This is where the magic happens - the combination of the ricotta as it melts mixing with the tomato sauce reminds me of that like combination you get when you eat a buffalo chicken sandwich and the creamy blue cheese mixes with the buffalo sauce.

It's just so delicious, and the soft bun works here because it has some give. A harder bun would squoosh the meatball out one end, but since it's soft, I think it's the right choice for this recipe. It's also a good tailgate thing to make because it can be made ahead of time and just preheated wherever you're tailgating.

If you love Italian food like I do, I've got a few more recipes on screen that I think you're going to want to try. One of them is this spicy bell pepper pasta sauce, which has been shared with me by almost as many of my subscribers than any other recipe I've made.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is sponsored by beef it's what's for dinner on behalf of the beef checkoff thank god football is back it also marks the beginning of tailgating season but tailgating doesn't have to be grilling in a parking lot outside the stadium it could be in your kitchen or a friend's backyard it's just another good opportunity to gather people around food and regardless of where your tailgate is you want to be the star of it and that's why i partnered up with beef it's what's for dinner on behalf of the beef check off to bring you this easy yet show-stopping rigotta meatball sliders that are gonna steal the show at your tailgate so let's just jump right into it now here i've got some whole peeled plum tomatoes that i ran through a food mill that got me this tomato passata or puree you could also buy a good can of tomato pasata or puree but just go through the bottles look at the ingredients the labels that have the simplest ingredient list are usually the ones to go with and especially for something like this you kind of want it to be thick and pureed so it will coat the meatball i also have some sliced garlic here thinly and some basil step we're gonna get this onto the stove and get this working before we work on the meatballs this is just the prep stage of weekday sauce which i've shown many many times on the show i'll leave a link down below if you want to check that out you can do that after this video in a wide saute pan over medium heat add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan then immediately add the garlic and the basil stem and allow those flavors to infuse into the olive oil you want to add some heat just throw a little chili flake in there once the garlic starts to brown add the pureed tomato the sauce is sufficiently thick right now which is usually good for pasta but i need to cook meatballs in it so i'm going to add some water to thin it out and to compensate for the evaporation that's going to happen while i cook the meatballs so that when the meatballs are done cooking the sauce is properly thickened so we're just going to let this simmer while we make the meatballs now to learn all about beef beef cuts you get all sorts of recipes visit beef that's what's for dinner dot com the link's gonna be down in the description but today i'm using 80 20 ground chuck eighty percent lean meat twenty percent fat whenever we talk about a burger or meatball kind of thing going on meatloaf we want to talk about fat content so you'll often see 90 to 10 lean to fat ratio but for my taste that just doesn't cut it i know it's there for dietary reasons it just doesn't bring the flavor or the moisture so always look out for 80 20 or find an online butcher that are widely available today you should be able to get some delivered straight to your door now if you followed my meatball recipes i have a particular way of making them and it evolved over time and today i'm going to show you a little bit of that evolution so what i'm doing in a big bowl in goes my meat i have one bowl with the meat one bowl with the slurp and the slurry is just a mixture of all the ingredients that i can then combine evenly and then distribute into the meat lately i've been cracking the eggs though separate from the slurry and directly into the meat so that the meat gets coated in the egg so that there's like a maximum binding power from the egg with meatballs for me you have the meat and then you have everything else and the idea is to get everything incorporated into the meat without working it too hard so i got a pound of meat and i'm gonna crack two eggs directly into the meat with a little bit of salt and then i want to gently incorporate the egg into the meat sort of using my fingertips a little bit you don't want to overwork the meat at this point so that's ready i'm going to set that off to the side while i make my slurry mixture chop some parsley i don't want the parsley super duper fine but i also don't want it too coarse either so you get like uh two to three tablespoons two and a half tablespoons of diced parsley half cup of some bread crumbs half a cup pecorino romano not parmesan pecorino you need the salt in this i'm gonna take about a quarter cup of the tomato sauce we have cooking some grated garlic two or three cloves and here's the major difference usually i add milk but i'm going to switch it out with ragota instead and then the regatta just slightly changes the textures of the meatballs makes it a little bit more succulent and tender and beautiful so i'm gonna go with a half a cup of ricotta i'm gonna use this in a little bit salt some olive oil now you want to mix that slurry up really well so that all those flavors are kind of equally distributed in this mixture and now we can take this kind of ball or slurry and incorporate that into the ground beef work it gently fold it onto itself until you can see visually that the meat and the slurry are nicely distributed and just from smelling and looking at the mixture i can tell it's right and nicely seasoned we're gonna use this ice cream scoop and it measures out to about three ounces of meat and we're just trying to match the size of these slider rolls i'm gonna go through measure out all the balls then i can go through roll them into nice little meatballs i just kind of bounce them back and forth in my hand gently kind of compressing them without making them dense and sealing up all kind of gaps so if you see any kind of openings or creases you really want to work those out so that the entire ball is sealed like you work with dough you want to use the palms of your hands to just shape the dough into a ball i don't like to use water or anything i like to use the tackiness of my hand to help the ball seal i could just tell with the look how they're holding their shape as a ball the smell they're gonna be perfect now before we fry the meatballs i kind of want to have a little bit of a fried basil garnish so i'm going to get some olive oil in enough to fry the meatballs in but before the meatballs go in i'm just going to toss some big basil leaves and we want to fry those until we start to see the leaves transform into like a dark deep forest green as you see the leaves make that transformation you want to get them out of the oil as they'll continue to crisp up as they dry and they're sort of like this glossy glassy crispy piece of basil that's going to be beautiful on top of the meatball sliders once you get the basil out then we just want to add the meatballs and we just want to cook them until they're brown they're gonna finish cooking in the sauce we really just want to develop color and flavor just know that when you're flipping the meatballs they're really delicate so you kind of don't want to squeeze them too hard or break them up in any way i kind of use this flicking method so that i don't have to like squeeze or potentially damage the meatballs when i'm going to flip them once they're browned all over i just gently pick them up and add them directly to the sauce and then go ahead and finish browning the meatballs you'll notice the tomato sauce has thickened and it can now coat the meatballs and that's exactly what you want but it's not over reduced and it's not too thick if it was i would add a touch more water to it just to give it enough time for the meatballs to cook now we've got most of the meatballs browned i'm just going to get this last batch into the sauce get those coated in the sauce and we're just going to simmer this guy for about 20 to 30 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through and nice and juicy you don't really want to cook meatballs forever they'll either get dry or eventually they'll start to fall apart now while those meatballs simmer we can make our whipped porgotta i'm just going to add about two cups of the rigotta to a food processor i'm gonna add a little bit of salt and some olive oil then i'm just gonna whip that up until it's nice and smooth and it really helps for the regotta to be cold for this and get it into a ziploc to make sort of like a makeshift piping bag keep this chilled right about now the meatballs should be perfectly cooked so we can toast up some slider rolls we can pipe out a little bit of that whipped ricotta on the bottom and top of the slider rolls we're gonna put a little bit of fresh basil on the bottom side of the bun then we're going to pop some beautiful meatballs right atop the basil a little bit of pecorino romano on top some of that fried basil to finish it and then to close up the sliders we're going to use a little toothpick to keep it in place the combination of the rigotta as it melts mixing with the tomato sauce reminds me of that like combination you get when you eat a buffalo chicken sandwich and the creamy blue cheese mixes with the buffalo sauce it's just so delicious the soft bun works here a harder bun would squoosh the meatball out one end but since it's soft it has some give and it's the right choice it's a good tailgate thing to make because it can be made ahead and just preheated wherever it is you're tailgating the recipe is going to be down in the description so is beefitswhatsfordinner.com go check that out that's all that i have today i'll see you next time until then take care of yourself and go feed yourself if you love italian food like i do i've got a few more recipes on screen that i think you're going to want to try like this spicy bell pepper pasta sauce that more of my subscribers have made and shared with me than almost any other recipe that i've made so i think you're going to like this onethis video is sponsored by beef it's what's for dinner on behalf of the beef checkoff thank god football is back it also marks the beginning of tailgating season but tailgating doesn't have to be grilling in a parking lot outside the stadium it could be in your kitchen or a friend's backyard it's just another good opportunity to gather people around food and regardless of where your tailgate is you want to be the star of it and that's why i partnered up with beef it's what's for dinner on behalf of the beef check off to bring you this easy yet show-stopping rigotta meatball sliders that are gonna steal the show at your tailgate so let's just jump right into it now here i've got some whole peeled plum tomatoes that i ran through a food mill that got me this tomato passata or puree you could also buy a good can of tomato pasata or puree but just go through the bottles look at the ingredients the labels that have the simplest ingredient list are usually the ones to go with and especially for something like this you kind of want it to be thick and pureed so it will coat the meatball i also have some sliced garlic here thinly and some basil step we're gonna get this onto the stove and get this working before we work on the meatballs this is just the prep stage of weekday sauce which i've shown many many times on the show i'll leave a link down below if you want to check that out you can do that after this video in a wide saute pan over medium heat add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan then immediately add the garlic and the basil stem and allow those flavors to infuse into the olive oil you want to add some heat just throw a little chili flake in there once the garlic starts to brown add the pureed tomato the sauce is sufficiently thick right now which is usually good for pasta but i need to cook meatballs in it so i'm going to add some water to thin it out and to compensate for the evaporation that's going to happen while i cook the meatballs so that when the meatballs are done cooking the sauce is properly thickened so we're just going to let this simmer while we make the meatballs now to learn all about beef beef cuts you get all sorts of recipes visit beef that's what's for dinner dot com the link's gonna be down in the description but today i'm using 80 20 ground chuck eighty percent lean meat twenty percent fat whenever we talk about a burger or meatball kind of thing going on meatloaf we want to talk about fat content so you'll often see 90 to 10 lean to fat ratio but for my taste that just doesn't cut it i know it's there for dietary reasons it just doesn't bring the flavor or the moisture so always look out for 80 20 or find an online butcher that are widely available today you should be able to get some delivered straight to your door now if you followed my meatball recipes i have a particular way of making them and it evolved over time and today i'm going to show you a little bit of that evolution so what i'm doing in a big bowl in goes my meat i have one bowl with the meat one bowl with the slurp and the slurry is just a mixture of all the ingredients that i can then combine evenly and then distribute into the meat lately i've been cracking the eggs though separate from the slurry and directly into the meat so that the meat gets coated in the egg so that there's like a maximum binding power from the egg with meatballs for me you have the meat and then you have everything else and the idea is to get everything incorporated into the meat without working it too hard so i got a pound of meat and i'm gonna crack two eggs directly into the meat with a little bit of salt and then i want to gently incorporate the egg into the meat sort of using my fingertips a little bit you don't want to overwork the meat at this point so that's ready i'm going to set that off to the side while i make my slurry mixture chop some parsley i don't want the parsley super duper fine but i also don't want it too coarse either so you get like uh two to three tablespoons two and a half tablespoons of diced parsley half cup of some bread crumbs half a cup pecorino romano not parmesan pecorino you need the salt in this i'm gonna take about a quarter cup of the tomato sauce we have cooking some grated garlic two or three cloves and here's the major difference usually i add milk but i'm going to switch it out with ragota instead and then the regatta just slightly changes the textures of the meatballs makes it a little bit more succulent and tender and beautiful so i'm gonna go with a half a cup of ricotta i'm gonna use this in a little bit salt some olive oil now you want to mix that slurry up really well so that all those flavors are kind of equally distributed in this mixture and now we can take this kind of ball or slurry and incorporate that into the ground beef work it gently fold it onto itself until you can see visually that the meat and the slurry are nicely distributed and just from smelling and looking at the mixture i can tell it's right and nicely seasoned we're gonna use this ice cream scoop and it measures out to about three ounces of meat and we're just trying to match the size of these slider rolls i'm gonna go through measure out all the balls then i can go through roll them into nice little meatballs i just kind of bounce them back and forth in my hand gently kind of compressing them without making them dense and sealing up all kind of gaps so if you see any kind of openings or creases you really want to work those out so that the entire ball is sealed like you work with dough you want to use the palms of your hands to just shape the dough into a ball i don't like to use water or anything i like to use the tackiness of my hand to help the ball seal i could just tell with the look how they're holding their shape as a ball the smell they're gonna be perfect now before we fry the meatballs i kind of want to have a little bit of a fried basil garnish so i'm going to get some olive oil in enough to fry the meatballs in but before the meatballs go in i'm just going to toss some big basil leaves and we want to fry those until we start to see the leaves transform into like a dark deep forest green as you see the leaves make that transformation you want to get them out of the oil as they'll continue to crisp up as they dry and they're sort of like this glossy glassy crispy piece of basil that's going to be beautiful on top of the meatball sliders once you get the basil out then we just want to add the meatballs and we just want to cook them until they're brown they're gonna finish cooking in the sauce we really just want to develop color and flavor just know that when you're flipping the meatballs they're really delicate so you kind of don't want to squeeze them too hard or break them up in any way i kind of use this flicking method so that i don't have to like squeeze or potentially damage the meatballs when i'm going to flip them once they're browned all over i just gently pick them up and add them directly to the sauce and then go ahead and finish browning the meatballs you'll notice the tomato sauce has thickened and it can now coat the meatballs and that's exactly what you want but it's not over reduced and it's not too thick if it was i would add a touch more water to it just to give it enough time for the meatballs to cook now we've got most of the meatballs browned i'm just going to get this last batch into the sauce get those coated in the sauce and we're just going to simmer this guy for about 20 to 30 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through and nice and juicy you don't really want to cook meatballs forever they'll either get dry or eventually they'll start to fall apart now while those meatballs simmer we can make our whipped porgotta i'm just going to add about two cups of the rigotta to a food processor i'm gonna add a little bit of salt and some olive oil then i'm just gonna whip that up until it's nice and smooth and it really helps for the regotta to be cold for this and get it into a ziploc to make sort of like a makeshift piping bag keep this chilled right about now the meatballs should be perfectly cooked so we can toast up some slider rolls we can pipe out a little bit of that whipped ricotta on the bottom and top of the slider rolls we're gonna put a little bit of fresh basil on the bottom side of the bun then we're going to pop some beautiful meatballs right atop the basil a little bit of pecorino romano on top some of that fried basil to finish it and then to close up the sliders we're going to use a little toothpick to keep it in place the combination of the rigotta as it melts mixing with the tomato sauce reminds me of that like combination you get when you eat a buffalo chicken sandwich and the creamy blue cheese mixes with the buffalo sauce it's just so delicious the soft bun works here a harder bun would squoosh the meatball out one end but since it's soft it has some give and it's the right choice it's a good tailgate thing to make because it can be made ahead and just preheated wherever it is you're tailgating the recipe is going to be down in the description so is beefitswhatsfordinner.com go check that out that's all that i have today i'll see you next time until then take care of yourself and go feed yourself if you love italian food like i do i've got a few more recipes on screen that i think you're going to want to try like this spicy bell pepper pasta sauce that more of my subscribers have made and shared with me than almost any other recipe that i've made so i think you're going to like this one\n"