When Dad Stayed Home

• 500 grams of ground beef

• 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs

• 1 large egg

• Thyme

• Oregano

• Nutmeg

• Mozzarella cheese

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Shopping list:

Makes about twenty meatballs.

 

Contains lactose and gluten.

Mozzarella Meatballs

Everyone likes meatballs, right?

 

Making your own meatballs is all about making them more interesting. You can experiment with seasoning and, why not, fillings.

 

These mozzarella filled meatballs are a house favourite here. If you keep them small and bitesize, they make a surprising appetizer.

 

Larger sized, they go nicely with a homemade tomato sauce and some pasta or rice.

Blitz the breadcrumbs together with the herbs a few times in a blender, to make sure you don’t end up with large chunks of bread in your meatballs. Toss the breadcrumbs into a large bowl, together with the beef and the egg. Mix it all with your fingers until all the ingredients have thoroughly integrated into a sticky paste. Season with pepper and salt to your own taste.

 

The secret to easily manipulate any ground or minced meat is wethands.The water prevents the meat from sticking to your hands. Roll about twenty meatballs from the paste, about the size of a golfball. Still keeping you hands wet, take a meatball, flatten it a bit onto your hand and push a bit of the mozarella into it. 

You can scoop little balls of mozzarella, using a teaspoon, or cheat a bit and buy mozzarella balls. Sculpt the meatball around the cheese and make sure you close any seams thoroughly using your (wet) thumb. Keep repeating until you have filled all of your meatballs.

 

Bake your meatballs in a hot pan with some olive oil until they have a nice, golden brown colour on all sides. I tend to bake them in batches of five or six, so you can easily roll them around in your pan, browning equally on all sides.

 

Put them into an oven tray and slide them into an oven you preheated at 190 degrees Celsius (that’s about 375 Fahrenheit) for another twenty minutes.