At its best, the perfect meatball -- a true meatball baller's meatball, as it were -- is flavorful and keeps its shape, yet is fork-tender at the same time. But it's not as simple as seasoning and balling up some ground meat and calling it a day. There's one key component that keeps your meatballs supple and moist: a panade. If you're not familiar with the term, a panade is simply breadcrumbs soaked in some form of liquid, like water, stock, or most commonly for meatballs, milk.
Soaking the breadcrumbs makes it easier to incorporate them into your meatball mixture, but it also provides that extra moisture that the meat might lose during the cooking process. This is why you typically end up with tougher meatballs without using a panade (it's also one of the 13 mistakes that's ruining your meatloaf). You can use traditional breadcrumbs or panko for a panade, both of which will result in the same moist and tender texture that you want when digging into a plate of spaghetti and meatballs that could even meet the standards of Frank Sinatra's classic recipe.