Cloudy with a Chance of Cheese-Filled Meatballs

Cheese-Filled Meatball Recipe

Can you see the cheese oozing out? Mmm... yes.

We've been meaning to post this meatball recipe for a while now, but life just seems to get in the way. Trust me though, as meatballs go, these are easily the best. They take maybe half-an-hour to make, and we ate them for at least a week - there's just no getting tired of cheese-filled meatballs. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is an animated movie that came out a few years ago, and I have to admit, we never saw it. I couldn't resist the reference though, because I loved the children's book when I was a little kid. If you can get your hands on a copy, you should read it to your kids, especially while they're eating these meatballs. Either way, on to the meatball recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 - 1 lb low moisture mozzarella cheese
• 1/8 cup soy sauce
• 1/8 cup olive oil (plus a little more to grease the pan)
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 small roll (it can even be a little stale, we're after the crumbs)
• 1 small onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger (optional, but totally awesome)
• 1 packet sazon goya (also optional, but also awesome)
• salt and pepper
• basil

This is the fun part.

Directions:

Start by chopping up all the relevant things, that means the onions, garlic, ginger, and the basil. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: you don't have to use a knife. This stuff is all going to get mushed up into meat, so just use a cheese grater. The big side of the cheese grater works better for the onions and the fine side works better for everything else. Now you know. 

Next, mix everything but the cheese in a bowl with your hands. Ok, so you don't have to use your hands yet, but it's way more fun that way. That weird, semi-taboo pleasure you get from squishing raw meat through your hands? We won't tell anyone about it if you don't. This is a meatball recipe, after all - you're going to have to get your hands dirty!

Now that everything's mixed up good and proper, you're going to either cut your block of mozzarella up into nice, neat little cubes, or you're going to take the grated mozzarella that you stupidly bought at the store and squeeze it into little balls. Guess what we did.

Once that's done, whether you used your hands to mix your meat (you dirty thing, you) or you used a fork like a total prude, you'll still have to get your hands into the mix. Form your meatballs a little smaller than you'd like, and sink a cheese ball into the center of each one, just like in the picture above. Don't forget to roll them about between your palms to make them round!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.

This next step get's a little complicated, but don't let it put you off this meatball recipe: cook your meatballs. I know, I know, people ask us how cope.

Really, it's totally that simple. Keep it to about medium heat and try to roll the meatballs around so that they get cooked on all sides. You'll know they're done, because cheese will start dripping out of them. Do look before you take any one meatball off the grill to make sure that it's done on all sides. Sometimes one get's totally cooked on one side and still looks raw on the other - that would be gross to eat. Take them off and serve with whatever you like meatballs with!

Yeah, baby!

We started with pasta and marinara sauce, always a good staple, but for the leftovers we made some bomb meatball subs that, frankly, deserve their own little blog post. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures this time. Hope you enjoyed our very own meatball recipe - it's a new one for us and we love it. Don't skimp with the extras like the soy sauce and the honey, your meatballs will thank you!

Coming up next...

We're about a third of the way through our next recipe: Borscht Yeltsin. This one takes forever to make, but it's so good that you'll understand why if you take the chance! I know beet stew sounds a little out there, but just go with us on this one - we're Russian majors, we know what we're doing. And if you haven't already, like us on stumbleupon! It's that orange button in the box that's been following you all the way down this page. It's easy for you, and it does a lot for us!

Doesn't that look cute? Read it to your kids!