Deep-Fried Meatballs

One night I was preparing a quick dinner of leftovers, and I put together a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. As I got my plate ready, I noticed that the deep fryer was still sitting out from the previous evening. As usual, when I leave the deep fryer out and full of oil, something tends to find its way in there.

I figured that I could bread the meatballs and heat them up in the deep fryer without too much trouble. The spaghetti only needed to be microwaved, so I had time to put a little effort into deep frying the meatballs. If I'd had more energy, I would have more seriously considered deep frying whole clumps of spaghetti. That'll have to wait for another night, however.

Dan makes fancy meatballs. He starts with beef, and he often adds sausage. Sometimes he'll even use a mixture of beef, veal, and sausage. Then he adds bread, onions, peppers, mushrooms, various other spices, etc. and cooks them in the oven. They had been excellent the previous night, and I was looking forward to them again.

I rolled the cold meatballs in flour, dipped them in an egg wash, and then covered them in breadcrumbs. The meatballs then spent a few minutes in 375F oil, and they were ready to go. These sank in the oil, and they weren't in danger of sticking to the fry basket, so the whole process was really easy.
The meatballs were excellent and the breading was right at home with the pasta and red sauce. Unfortunately, I should have heated the meatballs up a little before deep frying them, because they were still slightly cold in their centers.
Was it my best work? No, but. . . can you screw up a meatball? Not really; it was still a fun, tasty way to make leftovers a little more exciting.