Mozzarella-Stuffed Meat­balls

(serves 4)

750 grams (1 1/2 lbs) mixed mince: pork, lamb and beef (or any one alone)
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup home­made bread­crumbs
hand­ful chopped basil
1/2 tsp Ital­ian sea­son­ing
1 large, per­haps 1 1/2 buf­falo moz­zarella balls (you must judge by the size of yours)
2 tbsps olive oil
5 cloves gar­lic, minced
3 soup-size cans peeled plum toma­toes, whizzed in a food proces­sor till smooth
salt and pep­per to taste

Mix mince, eggs, bread­crumbs, basil and Ital­ian sea­son­ing together VERY well. Knead it like a dough, and you will be able to see when it’s truly mixed, as it forms a lovely dough-like con­sis­tency, com­pletely amal­ga­mated and coher­ent. Form into small hand­fuls about 1 1/2 inch across, then pinch off an inch or so of moz­zarella and push it into the small hand­ful of meat. Then form the meat­ball around the cheese, seal­ing it as best you can. Some cheese may ooze out dur­ing cook­ing, but don’t worry. It’s deli­cious anyway.

Make all your meat­balls and set aside. Then cook the gar­lic in a large, shal­low, heavy saucepan, slightly in the olive oil, add the toma­toes and cook on a low heat for a bit, per­haps five min­utes. Then lower the meat­balls in a sin­gle layer into the sauce and cover the pot. The meat­balls will poach in about 20 min­utes, but you can turn it off after that and let sit while you do other things, just warm­ing it all slightly before you want to eat. Lovely with or with­out spaghetti, and cheese on top.

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One Response to “Mozzarella-Stuffed Meat­balls”

  1. Fiona Rivaz:

    So excit­ing, have just printed both the meat­ball recipes from your recipe index — love how easy it was to print them. Now for the cook­ing! x

    November 25th, 2011 at 10:45 am

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