Mini Meatball Roll-Ups

This past weekend I had gotten together with my closest college friends, as we celebrated our 20-something year reunion. While putting plans into place for our get together, we joked around about our daily diets of bodega-store eggrolls and street corner meatball sandwiches (we were starving art students at the time…don’t judge). This, of course, gave me the perfect idea for an appetizer to bring to our reunion. I simply cooked up some loose ground meat using my traditional meatball recipe mixed with a quick tomato sauce, then rolled it up in wonton wrappers with some shredded mozzarella cheese. What started off as a fun little idea turned into a creative, bite-sized alternative to a classic Italian party favorite!

There’s no real need for me to get too specific with ingredients for this recipe. I am well aware that the cook in every household, especially an Italian house, is partial to their own family meatball recipe. I do have my own meatball recipe listed below, if you are in need of one. One pound of your preferred meatball recipe, along with one cup of your preferred tomato sauce/Sunday gravy will work wonders. I used wonton wrappers because they roll up to a perfect bite-sized appetizer. You can also use eggroll wrappers for a larger portion, or any other pastry or dinner roll wrapper that you prefer. I also have listed below both a baking and stove top method for preparing the meatball mixture. I prefer baking my meatballs, but use whatever method you prefer. After all, it wouldn’t be a true meatball recipe if you weren’t able to make it to your liking!

Mini Meatball Roll-Ups

(You can use my quick sauce and meatball recipe below, or you can use your own preferred sauce and meatball recipe)
1 lb cooked meatball mixture*
1 cup tomato sauce, plus your preference of seasoning for taste (I used garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
1 pack wonton wrappers (makes 52 wraps)

Oven preparation
Preheat oven to 375˚. Break up meatball mixture* into a glass baking dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until meat is cooked. You can check on it occasionally and carefully break the meat apart with a wooden spoon. Remove from oven when fully cooked, set aside to cool. Heat the sauce in a sauce pan, season to your preference. When the meatball mixture is cooled, break apart into small pieces (a few pulses in a food processor works well for this). Mix the sauce with the meatball mixture, set aside to completely cool.

Stovetop preparation
Heat 1 tbspn olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add meatball mixture*, breaking into pieces with a wooden spoon. Cook until loose meat is no longer pink. Add tomato sauce, season to taste. Simmer until meatball mixture and sauce are mixed well. Remove from heat, let cool.

Assembly
Place one tspn of cooled meatball and sauce mixture in the middle of a wonton wrapper, top with a pinch of shredded mozzarella cheese (be sure that the mixture is cooled, otherwise it will soften the wrapper). Roll the wrapper up half way from the bottom up. Lightly wet the top edge of the wrapper with water, then continue to roll and lightly pinch the edge to seal. Repeat until all wonton wrappers are filled or all meatball mixture is used.

Place the wrappers on a lightly sprayed baking sheet (you will need two baking sheets if you are making all 52 wrappers). Lightly spray the rolled wraps with cooking spray. Bake in the oven at 375˚ for 20 minutes or until the wrappers are golden brown.

Serve and enjoy!

*Dom’s Meatball Mixture

1 lb ground beef. pork and veal mixture
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbspn Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
1 tbspn milk

Combine and thoroughly mix together all ingredients in a large bowl.

Eggplant and White Bean Meatballs

Could it be? A meatball recipe that doesn’t include beef, pork and veal, and isn’t fried? I’ve preferred baking meatballs over frying them for a long time now…but a meatless meatball? Truth is, there are a lot of interesting vegetarian meatball recipes out there. I find that eggplant is a fun vegetable to experiment with, and a little research led me to quite a few eggplant meatball recipes. I picked and chose from a bunch and put together my own version, which also includes white beans. While obviously not the same taste and texture as a true meatball, these are loaded with great flavor, and are very hearty and filling. Crunchy on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside…it was a perfect substitute for the real deal. What’s best is that my youngest daughter Ava, who is a meatball aficionado, powered through a dish of these! Serves well on their own or with a dish of marinara on the side for dipping.

Eggplant and White Bean Meatballs

Makes approximately 12 meatballs

1 large eggplant, skin removed, cut into 1″ pieces
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tbspn olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
salt and pepper
1 tbspn fresh basil, finely chopped
1 tbspn mint, finely chopped (you can use 2 tbspn basil if you do not have mint on hand)
1/2 cup canned canellini or garbanzo beans, rinsed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375˚. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots, cook for one minute. Add eggplant, then add water. Stir so that all of the eggplant pieces are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Place a lid over the pan, lower the heat to medium and let eggplant cook until soft and tender, about 10-12 minutes (stirring occasionally). Remove eggplant from the pan, set aside to let cool.

When cooled, place eggplant in a food processor with remaining ingredients. Pulse until well mixed, but not puréed. You can mix by hand if you do not have a food processor, but the meatballs will have a chunkier consistency. Shape the mixture into small balls as you would with traditional meatballs. Placed the meatballs onto a lightly sprayed baking sheet. Lightly spray the meatballs. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until they are no longer soft to the touch.

Serve with marinara sauce.

Caprese Garlic Bread

A few weeks back, a friend of mine was telling me that she was planning to make Caprese Salad sandwiches for a family dinner. Just thinking of the classic combination of fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella nestled between crusty bread had my mouth watering. Her sandwich combination was the perfect inspiration for this week’s recipe…Caprese Garlic Bread. The marriage of Caprese Salad and crusty, rustic garlic bread is a no-brainer. Think of it as a crispy, fresh and flavorful home-made pizza, served as an appetizer.

While the ingredients are very simple and basic, I cannot stress enough that you should use all fresh ingredients. Forget about pre-made frozen garlic bread, dried basil or garlic powder. While they all serve a fine purpose, you will quickly agree after one bite that fresh ingredients are the way to go.

The ingredients for the garlic bread itself are very simple and basic. You can either go with a garlic-butter spread or a drizzle of olive oil topped with garlic and sea salt, then lightly dusted with grated parmesan cheese. Normally I would add additional herbs to the mix, such as oregano, parsley, marjoram or thyme. But for this recipe we’re going very basic with the garlic topping, while letting the fresh basil, tomatoes and mozzarella handle the bulk of the flavor. This recipe is very quick and easy to assemble – you can have it prepped, baked and plated in about 20 minutes or so. Just pour yourself a nice glass of wine, and 20 minutes later you’re ready to dig in!

Caprese Garlic Bread

1 loaf Italian bread or French bread, sliced in half length-wise
12-oz fresh mozzarella, sliced about 1/4″ thick
4 roma tomatoes, sliced about 1/4″ thick
10-12 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 tbspn grated parmesan cheese

Version A: Garlic-Butter Spread
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter, mixed with 3 cloves minced garlic

Version B: Garlic and Olive Oil topping
1/3 cup olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 350˚. Place both halves of the bread, cut side up, on a baking sheet. If using the garlic-butter, spread it evenly on both pieces of the bread. If using the garlic and olive oil,  lightly drizzle both pieces of the bread with the olive oil so that the bread is lightly but evenly coated, then spread the minced garlic and add a light sprinkle of sea salt. Once the bread is topped, add a light dusting of grated parmesan cheese.

Next, place the sliced mozzarella evenly onto both halves of the bread. Place the bread into the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, add the chopped basil and the tomato slices, then place back into the oven for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool for a minute or so. Slice, serve and enjoy!

The garlic bread topped with fresh cheese prior to baking.

Caprese Garlic Bread, plated and ready to serve!

Grilled Parmesan Basil Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes are a fun and versatile fruit/vegetable (whichever you prefer) that I enjoy all year round, especially during the summer season. Whether mixed in a salad, or popped as a quick snack, their juicy flavor always brings a smile to my face. For this recipe I added a little extra complementary taste and texture which really added a nice, yet subtle complexity and made for a beautiful summer side dish. You can prepare this dish either on a grill (using a grill basket) or in an oven. The tomatoes cook quickly using both methods, but I prefer the slightly charred taste of being cooked over an open flame. Whichever method you prefer, you’ll be sure to enjoy these tasty and juicy treats.

Grilled Parmesan Basil Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tspn garlic powder
1 tspn chopped basil
1 tbspn parmesan cheese
pinch of salt
olive oil

Directions
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil so that they are all evenly coated. Roll the tomatoes in breadcrumb mixture. The breading may not coat evenly but rather clumpy. This is fine, as the breading will adhere to the tomatoes when cooked.

Grilled – Pour the tomatoes into a grilling basket. Place the basket on an indirect heated portion of a hot grill. Close the lid and let cook for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes start to shrink.

Oven Roasted – Heat oven to 400˚. Place tomatoes on a cooking sheet. Roast until tomatoes start to shrink and the skin starts to shrivel, approximately 10 minutes.