Gluten Free Nutty Italian Meatballs

Gluten Free Nutty Italian Meatballs

MY SECRET IS OUT!!!  Treat your family to these amazingly moist, Italian Meatballs.  

What is the key to a moist meatball?  Lean meat will get tough during cooking.

By adding eggs and ricotta cheese, this will help keep the meatballs

moist.  By adding soaked bread as a binder,  this will also prevent meatballs from 

shrinking and becoming tough.  For an exciting addition, we used 

Three Baker's Great Seed Bread for a little crunch.

Ingredients:
8 slices of Three Baker's Great Seed Bread (or other T.B. bread)
1/2 cup milk or water
1 pound ground beef (lean)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup ricotta cheese (whole milk)
3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
3 TBS dry parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
oil for frying

Directions:
1.  In large bowl soak bread in milk until soft, squeeze bread in strainer to remove excess milk.  Return bread to bowl.
2.  Add beef, eggs, ricotta, garlic, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper.  With "clean" hands mix thoroughly.  Do not over mix.
3.  Roll into golf ball size balls.
4. Fill skillet with oil (approx. 1/2 inch).  Heat on med/high heat.  Add meatballs to heated oil leaving space between each meatball.  Brown on all sides.  Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.  Season with salt.  Repeat process for remaining meatballs, adding additional oil to skillet, if needed.  Let cool.  
6.  Serve with favorite tomato sauce.