Meat 'Pillows' Baked in Tomato Sauce

By ngteller

Light and flavorful meatballs in the shape of pillows with a spicy tomato sauce.

Ingredients

• 6 oz brioche or challah bread, or country-style white bread
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4 eggs
• 2 pounds best-quality ground beef
• 1.5 cups grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1.5 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• kosher salt
• 3 cups homemade or prepared tomato sauce

Details

Servings 6
Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 60mins

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350F

Cut off bread crust and slice bread in large cubes. Combine in a bowl with milk, turning cubes to moisten.

While bread is soaking, place parsley in food processor. Roughly chop garlic and add to mix. Pulse until uniformly chopped. Add eggs and pulse briefly to blend.

Squeeze excess moisture from bread cubes, discarding liquid. Place bread in a large bowl and crimble beef into it. Add cheese, broth, and pepper. Mix with hands until well blended. Because cheese and broth contain sodium, salt may be optional. To test, pull off a small piece of mixture and fry in a pan; taste and salt mixture accordingly.

Spread tomato sauce into the bottom of a rectangular baking pan. The meatball mix will be too wet to form spherical balls. Instead, shape like footballs by scopping 3/4 cup of mixture and holding your hands like cradles, turn meat from one to the other until it holds its shape. Gently place meatball into sauce. Continue to make all meatballs, separating in pan.

Cover pan tightly with foil. Cook about 40 minutes. Meatballs will not brown much (but that is OK)

Serve 2 meatballs side-by-side on a plate and spoon reduced tomato sauce over.