Q: Making meatballs for dinner. Should I fry, roast, or braise?

A: I prefer not to roast, fry or bake. Often, I don't brown my meatballs at all. Instead, I cook them directly in a bubbling sauce for about half an hour until they're soft and succulent.

The plague of the American meatball is a lack of understanding of the proper proportions of meat and non-meat. A really good meatball is about 50 percent meat and 50 percent breadcrumbs.

The true secret is day-old bread, soaked in milk or water, to bring lightness to the mixture. When you cook beef, pork or veal for too long, it starts to get tougher. But the bread in meatballs never gets tough. Use a lot of bread and your meatballs will be perfectly tender.

I like to combine the ingredients in a stand mixer and let the technology do the work. The meatball dough will seem wetter than you'd imagine. Allow it to sit for a few minutes and it will be just dry enough to work into spheres.

On Super Bowl Sunday, I make one of my favorite incarnations of meatball: the sub. Place a few meatballs between pieces of lightly browned bread and pile them with mozzarella, basil and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Place it under the broiler for two minutes until the cheese is melted and just bubbling.

Meatballs are just as good the second day. Reheat them exactly as you cook them: in simmering tomato sauce.

Polpette alla Napoletana (Neapolitan Meatballs)

Courtesy of "Mario Batali Holiday Food" (Clarkson Potter 2000)

Makes 12-15 meatballs.

3 cups day-old bread cut into 1/4 inch cubes

1 1/4 pounds ground beef

3 eggs, beaten

3 garlic cloves, minced

3/4 cup grated pecorino cheese

1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley

1/4 cup pine nuts, baked for 8 minutes in a 400 F oven

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 1/2 cups basic tomato sauce (see recipe below)

In a shallow bowl, soak the bread cubes in water to cover for a minute or two. Drain the bread cubes and squeeze with your fingers to press out excess moisture.

In a large bowl, combine the bread cubes, beef, eggs, garlic, pecorino, parsley, toasted pine nuts, salt and pepper, and mix with your hands to incorporate. With wet hands, form the mixture into 12 to 15 meatballs, each smaller than a tennis ball but larger than a golf ball.

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, heat the oil over medium heat until almost smoking. Add the meat balls and, working in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding the pan, cook until deep golden brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook all the meatballs for 30 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool; save the sauce for another use.

Basic Tomato Sauce

Makes 4 cups.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, cut in 1/4 inch dice

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried

1/2 medium carrot, finely shredded

2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved

Kosher salt to taste

In a 3-quart saucepans, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and light golden brown, 8-10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes with their juice, and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt. This sauce holds one week in the refrigerator or up to six months in the freezer.

(Mario Batali is the award-winning chef behind 24 restaurants, including Eataly, Del Posto and his flagship Greenwich Village enoteca, Babbo. In this column, Mario answers questions submitted via social media and by people he encounters daily in Downtown Manhattan. Follow Mario on Twitter @mariobatali. Keep asking!)