Cheese-stuffed meatballs with physalis-tomato sauce

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Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 9 oz mantecoso or other semi soft cheese
  • 7 oz physalis, cut in half
  • 1 liter pomodoro tomato sauce (4 9-oz packages)
  • 4 fl oz milk
  • 1 slice white bread
  • 1 egg
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Handful of fresh parsley, minced
  • 1 tbsp herbs de Provence
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Pepper
  • Salt

Preparation

Cut the bread and soak in milk for a while. Dice the cheese. Set aside.

Put the ground beef in a bowl and add two ground garlic cloves. Add the minced fresh parsley, egg, salt and pepper to taste.

Strain the soaked bread and add to the previous mixture. With clean hands, start kneading everything to blend the ingredients with the meat.

Separate the meat into medium-sized portions, similar to a golf ball. Smooth out with the hands, place a piece of cheese and close the ball, forming the meatballs and ensuring the cheese is well covered. If the meat sticks to your hands, a good trick to avoid that is to keep them wet with water, making it easier to form the meatballs. Repeat the process with all the meat.

For the sauce:
Mix the tomato sauce with garlic, herbs de Provence (you can add more spices if you wish), and add the physalis cut in half. Cook for 10 minutes and season well, since this sauce will give the meatballs their flavor.

Put half of the physalis-tomato sauce in a pot as a base and put the meatballs over it, if they do not fit, stack up one on top of the other.

Cover with the rest of the sauce and stir in folding motion so that the meatballs and sauce mix well. Lastly, add the bay leaves. Cover the pot and cook over low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour.