Stanley Tucci Just Shared His Go-To Meatball Recipe

• Frying meatballs in plain olive oil ensures a lighter result and avoids the heaviness of extra-virgin olive oil.
• Serve meatballs with or without sauce, but always fry them first to lock in flavor and ensure they’re cooked.

We’ve learned a lot from Stanley Tucci over the years, but no recipe or cooking tip is as quite as nostalgic as his family’s meatball recipe. The actor, cookbook author and renowned foodie is a great source for Italian-American inspiration in the kitchen, and this recipe is no exception.

The recipe is an old favorite of the Tucci family—Tucci grew up in an Italian-American household, with both of his parents having strong roots in the Calabria region of Southern Italy. “It’s a good one,” Tucci says in another clip of the recipe.

To start, Tucci begins with a large mixing bowl filled with a pound of ground beef. To the meat, Tucci adds 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic. If you have any stale bread lying around, this is the perfect opportunity to use it, as Tucci then adds ten slices of stale bread —which have been soaked in water and wrung out—to the bowl.

Even if you don’t have any old bread in the pantry, don’t skip this step. “The bread is equally as important as the meat,” the actor says. “That may sound funny, but it’s true.”

Next, throw in 2 tablespoons parsley, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano cheese and salt—“a couple of really good pinches” of it. Finally, the actor begins to mix everything together with his hands before rolling them into balls.

Now it’s time to begin cooking them. Tucci recommends frying them in a thin layer of olive oil, but advises to avoid EVOO. “It’s too heavy,” he said. Opt for plain olive oil instead.

You’ll know your pan is properly heated when the oil is shimmering, and you can even test the pan with a small piece of meat first, if you like. When your pan is ready, gently fry your creations, setting them onto a clean dish towel or paper towel to ensure the excess grease drips off.

So what’s the best way to enjoy these tasty morsels? It’s all up to preference. “You can eat them nude,” Tucci says, “meaning no sauce, with bread and butter [or] with a salad.”

If you have a little more time to spare, the actor mentions serving them with a meat-based sauce such as a ragu, but make sure to fry them first before combining them with the pasta to ensure they’re fully cooked.

“Don’t put them in raw,” Tucci advises. “They’d be kind of gross.”

If you need some more ideas for exactly how to serve these tender meatballs, here are some of our favorite dishes that would pair perfectly with this Tucci recipe. Just be sure you make enough to feed a crowd—we have a feeling these meatballs will be very popular.