Do you bake your meatballs or fry/brown them in the pan?

[momtothree]

If it's a lean meat, I throw them raw into the homemade tomato sauce. It adds such a richness to the sauce. And I simmer for hours. Trick is don't stir for an hour or so or till it cooks up a bit so it keeps the "ball" shape.

If it's a fattier cut, I will pan fry or oven bake depending on how I feel. But of the three, I prefer cooking them in the sauce.

[brokencrayola]

I fry them, but not in any oil or anything. I spray the pan with Pam and just cook them and soon their own grease is coating the pan. When done I drain all the oil off and usually add them to spaghetti sauce. My ex mother-in-law used to put her meatballs directly in her sauce, so we are talking about big balls of raw hamburger meat right in the sauce where all the grease and fat from the meat then sat and floated in her sauce, gross.