Fontina-Stuffed Veal Meatballs

My new love affair, Meatballs. A few months ago I made Homemade Meatballs for the first time, sad huh? While searching for a basic meatball recipe I found tons of recipes from around the world. Little did I know that meatballs are consumed globally, all different meats and ingredients. I just thought it was too good to be true… but then it got better. I found this Nonstick Meatball Basket that allows you to cook meatballs on the bbq! It has been a dream come true. I want to make meatballs every night – I even made a special trip to the butchers just for ground meat. Super yum! I need to get a meat grinder because I have a feeling this is going to get out of control!

Fontina-Stuffed Veal Meatballs
Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon minced rosemary
• Salt & Black Pepper
• 2 slices of white sandwich bread, crusts removed and bread torn into 1-inch pieces
• whole milk
• 1 pound ground veal
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 3 ounces Italian Fontina cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Directions

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in skillet. Add the onion and garlic, cook over medium-high heat until softened. Add the thyme and rosemary, season with salt & pepper. Let cool, about 10 minutes
2. Soak the bread pieces in the milk until absorbed. Squeeze the milk from the bread and transfer to medium bowl, add onion mixture, veal, egg, Parmigiano-Reggiano and 1 ½ teaspoons of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. Mix with hands until well blended
3. Scoop 1 1/2 tablespoon-size balls from the veal mixture. Stuff a cube of Fontina into the center of each meatball and roll to enclose the cheese. Transfer the meatballs to a plate or baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350
5. Bake 25-30 minutes or until are golden brown. Some of the cheese may ooze, but don’t worry, there will still be cheese inside. :) I bbq’d my meatballs for about 8 minutes on each side then returned them to the skillet that I cooked the onion mixture in and let heat on WARM until we were ready to eat.
6. Enjoy with Marinara!

These are the best meatballs I have ever made, it may have been the fact they were veal – but nonetheless, they were the best! Recipe adapted from Food & Wine.