Anyone got a Mozarella Meatball Recipe?

[22]

Kids want to make meatballs, I'm hopeless in the kitchen. Had a quick look online and seems lots of recipes, several using pork and beef. We want to use beef only as the local farmer makes it, but beyond that I've no idea which are good or not.

Guess would be served on spaghetti or pasta, not in too much of a sauce, but any recipe recommendations very welcome.

[21TonyK]

Have you got a food processor or mini-blender "thing" to make fresh breadcrumbs?

[22]

21TonyK said:

Have you got a food processor or mini-blender "thing" to make fresh breadcrumbs?

I'll search the kitchen, or ask a neighbour so presume yes.

[21TonyK]

In which case put a couple of slices of white bread in with 2-3 cloves of garlic and couple of teaspoons of dried oregano. Blitz until you have breadcrumbs, mix this into 500g of lean mince, add an egg, a teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper. Mix this up with your hands.

Cut up a couple of mozzarella balls into 1cm cubes, get a small handful (50g) of mix and form a ball, push the cheese into the centre and keep working it between your hands to reform the ball shape.

Put the oven on to about 160. Fry the meatballs really gently just to seal the outside then transfer to the oven while you boil the spaghetti and gently heat the sauce in a pan.

Use a half decent jar of pasta sauce and you'll save much time and effort!

[22]

Lovely, thank you. The mince is straight from the butcher and if it's anything like the burgers, 'lean' doesn't come close. I guess I could fry off some of the fat, but then I won't have a raw product to make the balls.

[21TonyK]

Don't worry about a bit of fat, the breadcrumbs will mop that up keeping them juicy

[ChrisnChris]

That sounds really nice & simple Tony, filed away for future reference

[rsbmw]

You need a bit of fat in burgers, meatballs etc or they'll be incredibly dry. 80/20 is typically the preferred ratio.

[Murph7355]

rsbmw said:

You need a bit of fat in burgers, meatballs etc or they'll be incredibly dry. 80/20 is typically the preferred ratio.

100% this.

I'd add rosemary to Tony's recipe (50/50 with the Oregano). I'd also cook the meatballs in the sauce personally.

[22]

Thanks all. Ended up using slightly different ingredients, but they were delightful. There were only a few meatballs that had 'oozing' mozzarella, for the most part the meat and cheese had become one.

[bluelightbabe]

Slow cooker mozzerella meatbals:

https://www.facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty/videos/1651...

[Blown2CV]

i don't mean to be a tt here but did you not work out you could just take a normal meatball recipe and ball the meat around a chunk of mozzarella? Not sure you need to be good at cooking to work that out!!

[22]

Blown2CV said:

i don't mean to be a tt here but did you not work out you could just take a normal meatball recipe and ball the meat around a chunk of mozzarella? Not sure you need to be good at cooking to work that out!!

You need to be better at cooking than I am. Probably 90% of all the meals I've made in my life have been in the last couple of months. Doing it as something to enjoy with the kids (and maybe learn about meatballs along the way).

[Craikeybaby]

21TonyK said:

In which case put a couple of slices of white bread in with 2-3 cloves of garlic and couple of teaspoons of dried oregano. Blitz until you have breadcrumbs, mix this into 500g of lean mince, add an egg, a teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper. Mix this up with your hands.

Cut up a couple of mozzarella balls into 1cm cubes, get a small handful (50g) of mix and form a ball, push the cheese into the centre and keep working it between your hands to reform the ball shape.

Put the oven on to about 160. Fry the meatballs really gently just to seal the outside then transfer to the oven while you boil the spaghetti and gently heat the sauce in a pan.

Use a half decent jar of pasta sauce and you'll save much time and effort!

Thanks Tony (and 22 for the initial suggestion) - we made these last night and they were great, other than the cheese having escaped from my last meatball.