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I found a recipe for baked Greek meat balls on the food blog The Mediterranean Dish, however, I thought: Isn’t it more Greek if there is also some feta involved? So I started my own version w/ additional feta sealed up in the meat balls.
When starting you’ll need some onion, some garlic & a bay leaf to be fried in some olive oil until soft. (It’s only about 10 min or so.)
So you trim & chop the onion, press 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, add a bay leaf & start frying softly.
Don’t forget at this point in the process to preheat your oven to 180° C w/ fan.
Now there is this wonderful casserole… white & clean & shiny…
… where we mix:
- mashed Italian tomatoes (out of a can)
- about 50% of the fried onion mess (w/o the bay leaf!)
- some red wine
- dried oregano
- cumin
- cinnamon (if you like!)
- some sugar.
For the record:
I skipped the cinnamon because my better half isn’t so fond of cinnamon…
Now the basis for our baked meat balls is ready!
We mix some cream w/ some bread crumbs. Rather soon we’ll get a stiff sticky mess.
Then we grab a bowl & add our (organic) minced beef.
To prepare the meat balls we add the rest of the onion mess, the bread crumbs mess, an egg, chopped flat parsley, cumin & dried oregano, salt & pepper… & we knead it thoroughly.
(I also skipped cinnamon here because of my better half…)
Once everything is fine for baking we cut the feta into 8 pieces & divide the meat mess into 8 parts. Each part gets its piece of feta & is sealed afterwards.
Finally the meat balls are lined up in the casserole. Distribute some tomato sauce over them before they enter the preheated oven.
About 40 min later… voilà!
Enjoy!
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp fine white bread crumbs
- 40 ml cream
- 400 g minced beef
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp chopped flat parsley
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon - optional!
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 100 g feta aka Greek sheep's cheese
- 400 g tomato pulp (1 can)
- 60 ml red wine
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon - optional!
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- salt & pepper to taste
- Preheat the oven to 180° C w/ fan.
- Cut the feta into 8 pieces.
- Combine cream & dried bread crumbs - it'll stiffen rather soon!
- Trim & chop the onion, press the garlic, add the bay leaf & start frying in some olive oil; salt & pepper to taste. It'll be ready after about 10 min.
- Mix tomato pulp, red wine, spices & herbs, sugar, salt & pepper in a casserole.
- Add half of the fried onion mess; discard the bay leaf.
- In a bowl knead minced beef, the bread crumb mess, half of the onion mess, the egg, spices & herbs, salt & pepper until well done.
- Divide the meat mess into 8 parts, roll each, put a piece of feta in it & seal it.
- Arrange the meat balls in the casserole & cover w/ tomato sauce.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 min.
- Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
- Sprinkle some chopped flat parsley on top - optional.
Sprinkle some fresh chopped parsley on top!
The top of any meat ball is a little crispy, but nevertheless delicious! (The rest of the meat balls is very soft & crumbly!)
If you cut a meat ball into 2 halves you’ll see that the feta didn’t escape – of course, the feta should never do this.
What else?
- You may serve the meat balls hot, warm or at room temperature.
- You may add potatoes, rice, pasta or simply fresh bread.
- You may prepare some tsatsiki, some green or black olives, some grilled vegetables to accompany the meat balls.
The businesswoman w/ too many office hours thinks
I simply added some fresh baguette… for our dinner after the meat balls had been baked. Half of them remained… in the fridge… & then we had another dinner w/ plain pasta & meat balls on top.
