Mozzarella-Stuffed Meat­balls

Mozzarella-Stuffed Meat­balls
(serves 4)

1.5 pounds mixed beef, pork and lamb (or veal, or just one meat)
1 egg
1/4 cup bread­crumbs
1/4 cup milk
large tbsp Ital­ian sea­son­ing
large tsp gar­lic salt
8 leaves basil, chopped
1 large ball moz­zarella
3 tbsps olive oil
4 cloves gar­lic, minced
1 white onion, minced
1 large plus 1 small can whole toma­toes, squeezed
salt and pep­per to taste
grated parme­san to gar­nish
spaghetti

Get the meat to not-freezing-cold temp. Mix the egg, milk, bread­crumbs, sea­son­ings and basil in a large bowl. Add meat and mix thor­oughly. Form into hol­lows in the palm of your hand, adding a dol­lop of moz­zarella to each and form­ing meat around it. Tuck it in where nec­es­sary, rolling as best you can to keep moz­zarella inside, form­ing about 10 balls.

Heat olive oil in heavy skil­let. Fry meat­balls gen­tly on one side till brown, then using a com­bi­na­tion of spat­ula and tongs, turn them each over to cook on the other side till brown. Trans­fer to a plate and cover to keep warm.

Fry gar­lic and onion in remain­ing oil, scrap­ing up bits. Pour in toma­toes, squeez­ing as you go. Sea­son to taste, and cook for about half an hour, stir­ring. Then gen­tly add meat­balls to the sauce. Turn heat down LOW LOW LOW and sim­mer for an hour or so, longer if you can, stir­ring a few times.

Gar­nish with cheese and serve with spaghetti.

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4 Responses to “Mozzarella-Stuffed Meat­balls”

  1. Alison Power:

    This is a fab­u­lous recipe and my daugh­ter absolutely loves it too! Shame that veal is so expen­sive in this coun­try because although it’s still tasty when made with beef mince, the veal is what makes it so spe­cial and deli­cious.
    About to do this again tonight for daughter’s god­fa­ther and friends vis­it­ing for kitchen supper!

    January 20th, 2011 at 11:36 am
  2. kristen:

    I am so glad to hear this, Ali! Coin­ci­den­tally I just got the ingre­di­ents for these to make for a lun­cheon, and sadly there was no veal. I will sub­sti­tute lamb, but you’re right, it’s the veal that makes it special!

    January 20th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
  3. alisonjhpower@aol.com:

    Ok — I gave the kitchen sup­per last night and now BOth my guests have demanded a link to the recipe. I had hoped to have some meat­balls left over for kid­dies sup­pers but every­one kept hav­ing sec­ond and third helpings!

    Incidentally,I have a lazy cook alter­na­tive to adding the seared meat­balls to the sauce on the hob and hav­ing to watch while they cook on low. After brais­ing meat­balls and then prepar­ing tom sauce in the skil­let, I then add the tom sauce to the browned meat­balls in a low sided lasagne type over proof dish (hav­ing pre-heated the oven) I then fin­ish the meat­ballz off in the oven which means they dry out less and can be kept warm for later arriv­ing guests! Plus as they don’t burn (as they might on the hob) so you can relax more and talk to guests ect! Have done this twice now and seems to work well Ali xx

    January 21st, 2011 at 11:24 pm
  4. Kristen:

    So great, Ali! I did the exact same thing this morn­ing for the Lost Prop­erty vol­un­teers lun­cheon. Per­fect! So glad your guests enjoyed them. A last minute addi­tion: a few table­spoons of home­made pesto to the meat­ball mix. Gorgeous.

    January 21st, 2011 at 11:34 pm

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