Primal - Italian Sausage Meatballs w/Fresh Herbs

This is taken from a free eBook from Mark Sisson's "Mark's Daily Apple" blog.

Makes 20 large or 30 medium meatballs.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef (or bison)
• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced
• 3 springs fresh thyme, minced
• 1 long sprig fresh oregano, minced
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1/2 small yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1 tspn red pepper flakes
• a few grinds black pepper
• 1/4 cup cream (optional)
• 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan (optional)
• 1/4 cup bacon fat

Directions:
Remove the Italina sausage from its casing.  Mix all the ingredients, except bacon fat, together until well combined.  With lightly oiled hands, roll the meatballs into the desired size.

To cook, heat bacon fat in a saute pan over medium to medium-high heat.  Ocne hot, add the meatballs.  Fry 5-7 minutes, until bottom is browned.

Turn meatballs to opposite side and fry until the side is nicely browned, another 5-7 minutes.  Cut one open to determine if it is fully cooked on the inside.  If not quite done, turn heat to low and cover pan for a few more minutes or put meatballs in a warm oven while you fry another batch.

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MY MODIFICATIONS:

• I did not have most of the fresh herbs, so I just eyeballed and used a little less than what would be for fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary) using dry herbs.
• Next time I might bake this on Broil in the oven, to help save some fat.
• I could not find where I had the sweet Italian sausage, so I used a different  Chicken Parmesan Sausage.  It tasted great.  Maybe using pork would give it a fattier taste?  When chicken sausages were on sale not too long ago, I bought 3 links of 4-5 different kinds.  I think 3 links is a little more than a pound.
• I thought I was doing this recipe, but I made a few changes.  Used 3 eggs instead of 2, added a little more red pepper flakes, which made it spicier.  Used a little more ground sirloin.  I mainly eyeballed things and mine made 60 medium sized meatballs.  It took awhile to pan fry these, but probably putting it on 2-3 large cookie sheets would've made it a lot quicker and spray with olive oil.
• It's best if you have tongs to turn the meatballs and do not put the meatballs too close together, as it makes turning them harder.
• You do not need a sauce for these, but if you do, probably a tomatoey sauce would be better than a cream sauce, IMHO.