Baked Meatballs Recipe

"This is a variation of Alton Brown's baked meatballs. The original recipe calls for equal parts ground lamb, pork, and beef, but lamb is very expensive and not very commonly stocked at the grocery stores in my area, and I use pork sausage for the pork for an added flavor boost. These are wonderful morsels with a bread crumb coating that almost makes a delicious snap when you bite into them. I use plain or Italian flavored bread crumbs, whichever I have handy. The secret is to bake these up and out of the grease by using a secret weapon: a mini muffin pan."

Step by Step Method

Step 1

Start off by preheating your oven to 400°F.

Step 2

Combine the pork, beef, spinach, Parmesan, egg, basil, parsley, garlic powder, salt, red pepper, and 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl with your hands until everything is well incorporated together. (At this point, you can cover and stash the mixture in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.)

Step 3

Pour the remaining 1/4 cup of bread crumbs into a small bowl.

Step 4

Portion out the meatballs: I'm going to give you two methods. First method is to use a scale. Cover the scale with plastic wrap and weigh out 1.5 ounce portions and set aside on a pan or plate. You should end up with roughly 20 meatballs. Or if you don't have a scale, use the second method. Divide the meat mixture into four parts, and each of those into 5 portions so you have 20 meatballs around the same size.

Step 5

Shape each portion into a ball, and roll the ball in the bread crumbs to give the meatball a light coating. Place into a cup of the mini muffin tin. Don't squeeze the meatball into the cup, just set it in so the grease will drip down into the cup, keeping most of the meatball out of the drippings as it cooks.