Favourite Italian Meatballs
A hint of lemon, rosemary and Grana Padano cheese add amazing flavour to my Favourite Italian Meatballs.
Some meatballs recipes can be dry and boring, but My Favourite Italian Kitchen Meatballs recipe makes the best meatballs ever! The flavour is exceptional with the addition of ingredients such as Grana Padano cheese, white wine, rosemary and surprisingly, lemon zest. This fantastic meatball recipe is from Luca Manfe, the winner of Season 4 MasterChef.
If you like to cook chances are you are a collector of cookbooks. Although we have an abundance of recipes available to us via Pinterest, Facebook, and the many wonderful food blogs, I still enjoy browsing though a cookbook page by page. My husband and I love watching the TV show Masterchef, and my favourite contestant was Luca Manfe. His new cookbook “My Italian Kitchen” has many wonderful Italian recipes! One exceptional recipe is Luca’s recipe for My Mother’s Meatballs. In addition to being a great meatball recipe it also makes great burgers and meatloaf.
Favourite Italian Meatballs
The flavour is exceptional with the addition of ingredients such as Grana Padano cheese, white wine, rosemary and surprisingly, lemon zest.
Ingredients
- 1 lb extra lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup Grana Padano cheese grated
- 1/2 cup onion finely chopped
- 4 tsp garlic minced
- 2 tbsp white wine
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/3 cup parsley fresh finely chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest grated
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 ciabatta roll cubed
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary
Instructions
- Place cubed bread in bowl, add milk (enough to cover bread). Set aside 20-30 minutes until bread is soggy.
- In bowl combine together cheese, onion, garlic, wine, eggs, parsley, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
- Place ground beef in large bowl, add wet ingredients and combine together.
- Squeeze milk from bread, then combine into beef mixture.
- Form into desired size of meatballs.
- Heat olive oil in large skillet, medium high heat.
- Add rosemary sprigs, then meatballs.
- Sear all sides of meatballs cooking until done, do not turn until each side is well seared or meatballs will fall apart.
- Serve with your favourite pasta, rice or mashed potatoes.
Nutrition
Calories: 129kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 12gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 58mgSodium: 325mgPotassium: 189mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 247IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 85mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
For another tasty recipe using ground beef how about trying this great meatloaf recipe Sicilian Meatloaf
Thanks Jennifer, the rosemary is wonderful in this recipe!
Those sounds great! And I like that the recipe was her mother’s, it seems that those are usually the best kinds of recipes. We rarely make meatballs but every time we do we are rewarded with a dinner that the whole family devours in moments!
So true, recipes passed down are the best!
Rosemary flavor ,I love it.
Me too, and pan frying with rosemary this way gives great flavour without being over powering.