Sausage and Spinach Meatball

It's been awhile since my last post, but I have good reasons for the hiatus - I moved from PennState to Delaware! The move has been exciting so far, but extremely exhausting and time-consuming. It has been more than a week since I first arrived at Delaware, and there are still boxes to unpack. Plus the windows are not yet covered by blinds so any curious neighbors can easily peek in right now, and half of the living room furniture still has not arrived. However, I do get to cook in my new kitchen, so life is good :)

Armed with new gadgets and tools, I am more motivated than ever to try out new recipes. I have only made meatballs once before in my life, and I didn't like how it turned out. In fact, I do not like meatballs in general - I would never order them in a restaurant or elect to eat them when I do not have to. However, this recipe just looked so good that I had to try it. The meatballs are not made from just ground beef or pork; it contains a secret ingredient... Hot Italian sausage! The sausage definitely gives the meatballs a slight kick and flavor. I also love the spinach in the meatballs, because then the meatballs are not a pure ball of meat. The new oven cooked the meatballs well, and the meatballs paired very well with some red-sauced pasta!

Serving Size:

Yield 7 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb Ground beef

3/4 lb Hot Italian sausage out of casing

1 10-oz boxfrozen chopped spinach

2 Eggs; lightly beaten

1/2 c Grated Parmesan cheese

1/3 c Dry bread crumbs

3 t boil packed sun-dried tomatoes; Minced

1 clove Garlic; crushed

3/4 ts Black Pepper; freshly ground

1/2 ts Salt

olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400~F. Crumble beef and sausage into a large bowl, breaking sausage up into small pieces. Add spinach, eggs, parmesan, bread crumbs, tomatoes, garlic, pepper and salt. Mix until well blended. 2. Shape meat mixture into 1-inch balls. Place meatballs in single layers on 2 oiled jelly-roll pans not allowing them to touch. 3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through and lightly browned. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot. Makes about 90 meatballs.