Sausage Balls

This hearty dish of sausage and tomato gravy was and still is one of my favorite “grandma foods”–those dishes that originated with her and were made by special request when we visited. Sausage balls were the first thing I asked her to show me how to make when I went to college and the recipe turned out to be super simple and ridiculously good. The recipe can also stretch a single pound of bulk sausage into several more servings simply by adding a little more onion and tomato juice to make more gravy–excellent for those of us who would happily live on gravy bread and mashed potatoes.
The meatball part of this dish can be made as large or small as you like. I favor making about eight large meatballs and serving one or two with a pile of mashed potatoes or thick cut slices of toasted bread, though sliced white sandwich bread works just fine too. We’ve occasionally served this with egg noodles as well, but I think it is at it’s absolute best with mashed or roasted potatoes. The one thing I do NOT recommend you do is substitue V8 or other juice blends for plain tomato juice, as the celery and spices that tend to be in them do not do anything good for the flavor of the overall dish. My mother would argue differently, but that would be why I learned this dish from my grandmother and not her. Her version never tasted right and it took me years to find out why.
Note: Despite the appearance of being a red tomato sauce, this gravy is really too thin to use on spaghetti. Shaped pasta works alright, but not the kinds that do best with a thicker sauce or you’ll have a puddle at the bottom and none on your noodles.

Sausage Balls
Serves 4-8

Ingredients:
1 pound bulk sausage
1 egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 medium to large onion, chopped
4 cups tomato juice (could use up to 6 cups if desired)
1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules or 1 large bouillon cube

Directions:
Mix the sausage, egg and breadcrumbs together in a bowl until combined. This is easiest with your hands, and squishy/messy enough to interest a lot of kids if you want to give them something to do. Form the mixture into meatballs of desired size for a total of somewhere between eight and sixteen. Heat a large skillet with deep sides over medium high heat and brown the meatballs on all sides, but don’t cook through. Remove meatballs from pan and set aside, pour off the excess fat from the skillet. Return the skillet to stove, reduce heat to medium and add onions to pan. Cook the onions until soft and starting to brown, then add the juice and bouillon and stir to dissolve the bouillon. Add the meatballs back to the pan and simmer the meatballs in the gravy for 10-15 minutes, until cooked through. Taste gravy for seasoning and add additional bouillon or tomato juice to adjust if needed or to stretch. I’ve added up to six cups of juice without losing any flavor, just add a little more bouillon and simmer together for another few minutes to thicken a bit. Serve hot over mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, bread or noodles.