Baked Meatballs with Feta Cheese

Who doesn’t like meatballs? I know I do. But I was thinking of new ways of making them, with a little twist. I heard of meatballs with cheese before, so I decided to explore that a little further.

Since I really love feta cheese and always have some at home, I decided to use that. Another reason is that meatballs do not have a very distinctive, strong flavor and feta cheese does. This, I thought, would create a nice balance of flavors. My idea was to make quite large meatballs, put some of the feta inside each meatball, make some traditional tomato sauce and bake the meatballs with the sauce and some extra crumbled feta cheese on top.

Personally, the meatballs with some salad on the side were more than enough for me. For the bigger, more demanding eaters this goes very well with spaghetti, of course (only then I recommend making a bit smaller meatballs), with rice or simply some bread. Anything you like, really.

  U need (serves 4)

                                                                              


500 grams of good quality minced beef


2 eggs

75 grams of fresh breadcrumbs

3 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

1 onion, finely chopped

250 grams of feta cheese

700 grams of good quality canned tomatoes

1 large glass of red wine

2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

2 spoons of sugar

a handful of roughly chopped basil leaves

salt & pepper

olive oil

How to make it

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

In a bowl, mix the minced beef with the eggs, the breadcrumbs, 1 garlic clove and 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley. Season well with salt and pepper. Divide into 6-8 equal pieces and form a flat circle from each piece. Put a spoonful of feta cheese in the middle of each circle and shape into balls, so that the cheese ends up more or less in the middle of each meatball.

In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil and fry the meatballs for a couple of minutes, until browned all over. Transfer them to a baking dish.

In the same frying pan, fry 1 onion and the 2 remaining garlic cloves for about 5 minutes, until they start to soften. Then add the tomatoes, season everything with salt and pepper, close the lid and let it boil very gently for about 10 minutes.

Then add the sugar and the balsamic vinegar. Remember to taste the sauce every time you add a new ingredient and then adjust the amounts. If after adding the sugar it is too sweet, add more balsamic vinegar. If it is too sour, add more sugar. The sugar might even not be necessary at all if you used good quality tomatoes.

Then add the wine and let the sauce bubble gently for another 15 minutes.

Pour the sauce over the meatballs. Sprinkle with the feta cheese and the basil leaves and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the cheese is golden and the sauce bubbling.

Scatter with some chopped fresh parsley and serve with a salad and some bread, pasta, rice…