Goat Cheese Stuffed Meatballs

So even someone who is well prepared for a 2-week lockdown starts scrounging around near the end of it.  It would have helped if I didn't have a recipe blog to write.  I could have had peanut butter pasta for two weeks straight, or until I ran out of soy sauce.

The last shopping trip before I had to isolate, I wasn't sure if I would be putting feta or goat cheese on the falafel pizza and bought both.  Eventually opting for the feta left the package of chevre available for this lovely concoction.

The best meatballs are made from a combination of two or three ground meats.  All I had was a pound of 80/20 beef and obviously couldn't make a spontaneous trip to the market for one or two ingredients.  If I could do that, there would have been bananas on the list.  Really started to miss those by the end.  A 50/50 mix of veal and pork would probably be the best combination for this, as both are mild tastes.  Half lamb wouldn't be bad because it goes with the cheese, but you don't want too many strong flavors in competition.

Since the recipe I'm following from With Salt & Wit cheated on the pasta sauce, and because I didn't have enough ingredients to make my own from scratch anyway, the effort involved in forming the meatballs is offset by the ease of the sauce.  I was also out of dried basil to make my own Italian seasoning mix and did not have many leaves on the basil plant, but I always buy the extra basil pasta sauce and just used more oregano in the seasoning.

I decided to try the paleo/keto/GF version and use almond flour instead of breadcrumbs.  Also, out of Panko breadcrumbs.  The recipe as listed doesn't require pasta.  I just wanted it with spaghetti because I have way too much pasta in the house.  Went easy on the portion size though because I was also having this with feta twists.

*1 lb ground meat of choice
1 egg, beaten
2 Tb milk
*1/4 C almond flour or 1/2 C Panko breadcrumbs
*1/2 C minced onion
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
*2 oz goat cheese
*1-1/2 C tomato pasta sauce
*1/2 C fresh basil leaves
grated parmesan and cooked *spaghetti, for serving

1.  Knead together ground meat, egg, milk, almond flour, onion, Italian seasoning, garlic, salt, and pepper.

2.  Pour sauce into bottom of 9x13 casserole and shake to cover bottom.  Sprinkle with basil leaves.  Preheat oven to 350º.

3.  Form meat mixture into 12 portions.  Flatten into circles and place 1 tsp of goat cheese into middle.  Enclose into a ball and place into casserole.  Yes, they really are that big.  Repeat until all portions are filled.

4.  Bake 25-30 minutes, until center of meatballs are 160º.  Allow to rest 5 minutes before serving.

5.  Serve topped with parmesan and more sauce over pasta, if desired.

Difficulty rating  :)