Mozzarella Meatballs

Nothing too fancy or too hard, but my girls love it when I make big meatballs like this and love it even more when they are filled will lots of yummy mozzarella cheese! Here's how I do it:

1-2 pounds of M4-D Ranch Pastured Ground Beef
Several 1/2 inch to 1 inch cubes of organic mozzarella cheese
salt - to taste
pepper - to taste
garlic pepper - to taste
any other seasoning you love - to taste
shredded cheese for topping at the end

For your first meatball, take about a 1/4 pound of ground beef (4 ounces) just like you would to make a hamburger patty. Instead of making a patty, I place a cube of mozzarella cheese in the middle and form the ground beef into a large meatball around the cheese. Now, if you make your own mozzarella, that's even better, but not something I've gotten around to doing quite yet.

cheese

Set meatball aside. Continue making meatballs like this until you've made as many as you'd like. 1 pound of ground beef should make 4 large meatballs; 2 pounds will make about 8. Sprinkle with whatever seasonings make your tastebuds tingle - I normally use salt, pepper and garlic powder as staples on my burgers.

meatballs_readytocook

Heat a skillet with a little olive oil. Now, our pastured ground beef is very lean and hardly ever has any extra grease - if anything I always have to add oil when cooking. So, I heat my skillet with a little olive oil and when it is heated I place the meatballs in to brown.

browning_sidea

Brown them lightly on one side, then turn and brown them on the other side.

browning_sideb

Next, add about 1/4 cup or so of water to the pan and put on a lid. Turn the heat down to medium or medium-low and allow the meatballs to steam until done. This is the key for having moist, juicy meatballs instead of hard, dried-out ones. Steam. Moist cooking.

steaming_meatballs

When they are done to your liking (we like ours around medium), remove to a plate and sprinkle the tops with shredded cheese - any favorite will work just fine. This cheese will melt and you'll have delicious melted cheese inside and out. Yum.

ready_to_serve

Enjoy!