Italian Fest’s meatball eating contest fueled by cultural & culinary heritage
A family recipe is behind the sixth annual meatball eating contest of the Butler Italian Festival on Main Street.
Maria Stephenson, of Center Township, and her son, Clark, dished out about 100 meatballs for the competition, and sold 4,000 at the festival so far, she said before the contest on Saturday, Aug. 26.
When asked what makes a good meatball, the owner of the former bakery known as Dolce Mia said “the simpler, the better.” Stephenson uses her grandmother’s recipe and fries the meatballs in olive oil using only the freshest meat and ingredients, she said.
The best compliment Stephenson has gotten on her meatballs was from a woman who said they taste like home.
“She got these big tears in her eyes and she said, ‘This is the first meatball I have every had in my life that reminds me so much of my grandmother’s sauce,’” Stephenson said.
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