Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from casing (or mix sweet and hot sausage to taste)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 sprigs fresh sage, roughly chopped
- zest and juice of 2 lemons, separated
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- milk to cover breadcrumbs
- all-purpose white flour to coat meatballs for frying
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed (for frying)
- 2 sprigs sage, intact
- 6 tablespoons butter
Method
Soak panko breadcrumbs in milk for 30 minutes. When soaked, squeeze out excess milk and discard milk. Set soaked breadcrumbs aside.
- Place sausage, garlic, sage, lemon zest and soaked breadcrumbs in a large bowl. Work mixture with your hands until evenly combined.
- Form sausage mixture into 11/2-inch balls, and roll each ball in flour.
- Melt butter in a large sauté pan. Add meatballs, crushed garlic cloves and sprigs of whole sage–don’t crowd the pan.
- Fry, turning occasionally, until meatballs are browned well and cooked through.
- Just before removing from heat, add reserved juice of two lemons. (For extra lemon flavor, add the entire squeezed lemon rind and stir it around in the pan before removing.)
