Meatballs...

Meatballs, how do you prepare them before they go for a long swim in a tomato sauce, brown gravy or other favorite sauce?

Sautéed
Baked
Raw

Do you use different types of ground meat?
or make
Seafood (yes seafood, cod meatballs - WOW)
or
Eggplant (one of my fav forms of a ball)

Other ingredients ?

Do you use bread crumbs or make a panade with milk or stock (even water) ?
Fresh or dried herbs ?

When I was growing up in an Italian household just north of Naples, my grandmother would always sautée the meatballs before they went into a sauce. I was trained that way and cook them that way today.

The only exception, when they went in raw was for what I'll call an Italian wedding style soup. It was actually a soup made with escarole, other veggies, white beans and tiny meatballs. Sometimes she also added pieces of hard cooked egg.

My mother was from Sicily, where seafood and veggies were used to make a form of meatball.

What's your method/tradition for making this wonderful flavorful orb?

Feel free to share a recipe or method that you use.

Happy CH'ing !!