Baked Chicken Meatballs

Ingredients

• Italian bread

  3 slice, large or 90g

• Whole milk

  3.25% milkfat, with added vitamin D

  ⅓ cup or 81g

• Canadian bacon

  Pork, cured, unheated

  ½ package (6 oz) or 85g

• Onions

  Raw

  1 small or 70g

• Garlic

  Raw

  1 cloves, minced or 3g

• Olive oil

  Salad or cooking

  2 tbsp or 27g

• Egg

  Whole, fresh eggs

  1 large or 50g

• Ground chicken

  Raw

  16 oz crumbled or 448g

• Tomato paste

  Canned, without salt added

  2 tbsp or 32g

• Parsley

  Raw

  3 tbsp or 11g

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Soak bread in milk in a small bowl until softened, about four minutes.
2. Cook pancetta, onion, and garlic in one tablespoon oil with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large skillet over medium heat until onion is softened, about 6 minutes. (Alternately, as in “I thought of this after the fact”, I’d bet you could render the pancetta for a couple minutes and cook the onions and garlic in that fat, rather than olive oil.) Cool slightly.
3. Squeeze bread to remove excess milk, then discard milk. Lightly beat egg in a large bowl, then combine with chicken, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, pancetta mixture, bread, and parsley. Form 12 meatballs and arrange in another 4-sided sheet pan (I used a 9×13 roasting dish).
4. Stir together remaining tablespoons of tomato paste and oil and brush over meatballs (the paste/oil does not mix in any cohesive manner, but just smoosh it on and run with it) , then bake in upper third of oven until meatballs are just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes (though mine took a good 5 minutes longer).
5. * I accidentally added a heaping tablespoon of the tomato paste into the meatball mixture the first time I made it, and ended up liking it better than without it. I’d use the tomato paste on top too. It’s good both places.