Meatballs that stay soft in the sauce

The mix is half beef, half pork. Beef has the flavor. Pork has the fat that keeps the center from going dry. All beef works if that is what you have, but add a tablespoon of olive oil to the mix or they will be firmer.

Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk before they meet the meat. Dry crumbs steal moisture from the beef and the meatball tightens as it cooks. Eighty grams of crumbs is about a cup of fine dried crumbs, not a cup of panko packed down. If the mix feels wet enough to slump, you used coarse crumbs and they did not drink the milk. Add a spoon more crumbs, not a handful.

Do not knead

Mix until the ingredients are evenly dotted through, then stop. A long knead makes the proteins bind the way they do in a sausage, and the meatball bounces. The same thing happens if you overwork them while rolling. Fifty grams each, rolled once.

Brown them for color, not to cook them through. A hard sear on high heat makes a gray band under the crust. Medium-high, and turn them when they release from the pan. They finish in the passata in 20 minutes. The sauce should shiver, not boil hard, or the meatballs split.

Out of eggs, look at the egg substitutes before you skip the binder. One egg holds this batch. Two is what the recipe asks for because of the pork and the crumbs. Whole milk can be swapped using the milk conversion if you are measuring 60 g by eye. It is about 1/4 cup.

The sauce is plain on purpose. Oregano, the fond from the pan, and the parmesan in the meat are enough. A pinch of sugar only if the tomatoes are harsh.