Sicilian-style meatballs in tomato sauce

Make the panade: tear or cut the crustless bread, add the buttermilk and heavy cream and mix thoroughly until the bread is fully saturated and practically a paste, so there are no hunks of bread in the meatballs.

Roughly chop the onion and saute until lightly caramelized, about 5 minutes. Keeping the onion small and cooked stops it steaming in the meatball and turning it into meatloaf.

Kill the heat and add the roughly chopped garlic and the pine nuts; the residual heat of the pan lightly toasts them. Let the mixture cool.

In a food processor combine the diced pancetta, packed parsley, the cooled onion mixture, the currants, anchovy paste, Calabrian chilies, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano. Process to a rough pesto with definite texture but no big crunchy chunks.

Add the panade, kosher salt, black pepper, oregano, the whole egg, the egg yolk, the cracked fennel and the lemon zest, and mix until completely smooth, before the meat goes in.

Add the ground beef, veal and pork and work the mixture just enough to distribute the meats and the paste evenly. Any more and the meatballs come out tight and tough.

Fry a small patty of the mixture and taste it for seasoning.

Form the mixture into balls with wetted hands, weighing each on a scale; these were 125 grams each.

Roast at 425F in a convection oven until the meatballs register 150F at their thickest point, running the broiler at the end for extra color. They finish cooking in the sauce.

Build a basic short-cooked tomato sauce in the widest pan available, so water evaporates and the sauce concentrates quickly and the meatballs all fit submerged.

Drop the half-cooked meatballs into the sauce, spoon sauce over the top and simmer about 10 minutes maximum, until they come gently up to 165F and no further.

Serve with a little sauce, freshly grated cheese and scattered herbs.