Beef meatballs with Mozzarella & Basil

It’s Sunday, and it’s The Semi-Naked Chef’s time to prepare breakfast. Luckily I had the foresight to pop out yesterday to gather some provisions. What are we having for breakfast this Sunday then? Well folks we are having Beef meatballs with Mozzarella & Basil. Oh yeah baby. Juicy meatballs, crunch from baked breadcrumbs, with gooey melted cheese and sweet basil overtones. Sounds good right?

I have decided to do video and written for this one – as the ball creation is easier shown than written how to. But make your own choice of media hey, that’s why I give the choice in the first place. But the photo above shows these beauties once the cooking is done, man oh man if it wasn’t 0830am I’d be cracking a beer right now, yum oh yum, so Shiok, Beef meatballs with Mozzarella & Basil.

To make 8, rather large Beef meatballs with Mozzarella & Basil;

• 400g minced beef;
• 3 eggs;
• Breadcrumbs;
• A packet of sweet basil;
• A Mozzarella ball;
• A teaspoon of finely chopped garlic; and
• Sea salt & cracked black pepper.

1. In a bowl add the beef mince, 2 of the eggs, the garlic and salt & pepper (thank to Dougy I was again using my Kampot pepper);
2. Mix all this up with your hands, and set aside in the fridge for a little while to sort of glue;
3. In a plate crack the remaining egg and whisk it until beaten;
4. In another plate out some breadcrumbs;
5. Get a baking tray, and cover it with silver foil;
6. Take the beef mince out of the fridge and arrange as this;
   • Mozzarella;
   • Basil;
   • Beef;
   • Egg;
   • Breadcrumbs;
   • Baking tray.
7. Rip a piece of cheese off the ball;
8. Wrap the cheese ball with a basil leaf;
9. Take a small handful of beef mince and flatten it to a patty;
10. Put the cheese and basil in the middle;
11. Roll it in to a ball, making sure you have covered the cheese and basil, and there are no cracks;
12. Roll it in the egg mix;
13. Roll it in the breadcrumbs;
14. Lay on the baking tray; and
15. Repeat.

You should now have 8 beautiful Beef meatballs with Mozzarella & Basil sat on your baking tray. Preheat an oven to 220 and pop these bad boys in for about 15-20 minutes, the breadcrumbs will toast. Out they come, pile em up on a plate. I served with a very simple dip of a few squeezes each of Japanese mayonnaise, Tomato Ketchup and lime juice, simply mixed together. Nice.

And there you have it guys, my ever so simple, and ever so effective recipe for Beef meatballs with Mozzarella & Basil. Clearly this is great beer food, but today when I made this up, it was for family breakfast, and boy was this devoured in seconds with lots of oooohhhs and ahhhhhs as they were chomping down, which is always a good sign. Bloody good one this. Have a go. ENJOY!!!

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