Sucess! Spicy Giant Meatballs

I have a successful recipe to put on here! Hurray! I just made it the other night, so it's still fresh in my mind. Hopefully, I'll be adding some of my "old standby" recipes, too (like my Stuffed Peppers for Molly, Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Matt's Citrus Herb Salmon, Mexican Lasagna, and on and on...)

Spicy Giant Meatballs

Ingredients:
2 lbs lean ground beef (I used about 1 2/3 lbs ground chuck)
2 lbs ground pork (again, I used about 1 2/3 lbs)
1 medium onion, minced
2 slices bread, no crust, torn up (I used 1/4 C plain bread crumbs - I happen to like them better)
5 garlic cloves
2 eggs
1/2 C fresh parsley (I didn't have fresh, so I used dried...it worked just as well)
1/4 olive oil
1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 tbsp. salt
1 1/2 C parmesan cheese (I used grated)
3 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 C ricotta cheese

Assembly:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the first 10 ingredients in a large mixing bowl (that's the ground beef thru the salt). I like to use my hands to mix this up. Add in 1 cup of the parmesan and 2 tsp. of the pepper. Mix again. Shape into giant meatballs (I got 15 tennis ball sized meatballs out of this recipe) and place on a cookie sheet.

In a separate bowl, combine the ricotta cheese and the remaining parmesan cheese and pepper. Set aside.

Bake the meatballs on the top 1/3 of the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, turn on the broiler.

Top each meatball with a spoonful of the ricotta/parmesan/pepper mixture. Place in broiler for 5 minutes, or until cheese browns. Top with your favorite red pasta sauce (we used Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara).

Eat & enjoy!


Photo and recipe courtesy of Real Simple. For more information on the recipe, click here.

PS - I know this font color is different than the other posts...I can't figure out why, and it's driving me insane!