Stuffed Italian - Mozzarella Meatballs & Gruyere Mushrooms

RECIPE TRIAL:

I love Italian food for so many reasons, but I especially love it because it has so many stuffed foods. Yummy delicious food on the outside -- more yummy (usually cheesy) stuff on the inside. It's all about the layers of goodness with Italian food. I have been wanting to try meatballs stuffed with mozzarella forever. And I love a good sausage meatball. So I came up with these tasty mammoth meatballs.

And on the side? I just had to serve some stuffed mushrooms. Mushrooms are how I get my husband to eat his vegetables or at least something resembling a vegetable. And who can resist these simple stuffed mushrooms? No one I tell you, No one. I used some Alouette and Gruyere for the mushrooms. The Gruyere comes from an artisan cheesemaker in Cedar City for all my Cedar City readers. Nature Hills Farms has some delicious cheeses and one of my faves is her gruyere.

Stuffed Meatballs

1 lb of mild Italian sausage, removed from casings

1/2 lb of ground pork

1/2 Cup of panko bread crumbs

1/4 Cup milk (we used soy milk and they turned out fine)

1 egg

1 Tb Worchestire sauce

1/4 tsp kosher salt (or to taste but the sausage is pretty well seasoned)

2 garlic cloves minced

Few dashes of ground pepper. 

Fresh mozzarella, drained well -- Fresh in the water mozzarella pearls work great. Don't use cheese sticks. The fresh stuff is just better for this recipe.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl (minus the mozzarella) and stir until combined.

Form meatballs by taking approximately 1/4 cup of meat and forming into ball. Place on cookie sheet and form a well in top of each meatball. 

Add mozzarella  pearls to wells. 

Close tops of meatballs around pearls and cook for 35 to 40 minutes until golden on top and no longer pink.

Serve with your favorite marinara sauce (aka gravy) and some pasta. 

Stuffed Gruyere Mushrooms

So easy it is ridiculous.

Mushrooms, however many you want. Stems removed,

Herbed Alouette spread

Grated Gruyere

Heat oven to 425,

Stuff mushroom caps to top with Alouette.

Sprinkle with gruyere.

Place in a baking pan and bake for 10-12 minutes or until gruyere starts to get golden.

Serve warm.

Like I said -- Easy!

Kielbasa Cabbage Stew W/ Latkes

Sweet potatoes and cabbage usually get a bad rap at my house. There are naysayers; people (certain family members) that won't eat these foods on most occasions. This soup (chock full of cabbage) however gets eaten every time I make it and the Latkes or potato pancakes are one of my favorite sides, especially with this hearty stew. Serve on top or as a side dish with a dollop of sour cream.

Both of these recipes have a pretty simple ingredient list and are easy to make although they do require some chopping and shredding.

I used my Bosch shredder to shred all the potatoes and onions for the latkes and that process went pretty quickly.

Potato Latkes

2 russet potatoes -- shredded
1 sweet potato -- shredded
1/2 small onion -- shredded
1 egg. beaten
1/4 cup of flour
salt and pepper to taste
Canola oil

Combine all ingredients except oil in bowl. Heat 1/ 4 inch of oil in a frying pan until hot. Add dollops of potato mixture. Press down slightly with the back of spatula.

Fry until golden brown on each side. About 3 minutes.



Kielbasa Cabbage Stew

4 Carrots chopped
2 celery ribs chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 keilbasa, sliced in 1/4 inch slices. I have also used 5 bratwursts in this stew )
3 Cups chopped cabbage
3 cans of chicken broth
1 can of Northern white beans
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil

Heat a large saucepan over med heat. Saute onions and celery for about 3 minutes until onion starts to get tender. Add chicken broth, carrots and herbs and salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.

Add chopped cabbage and cover and cook additional 10 minutes

Stir in kielbasa and beans and heat through about 5 more minutes.

Serve with Latkes or hearty bread

Southwestern Smoked Sausage Skillet Meal

I am always searching for a good recipe that uses smoked sausage. I buy the stuff thinking, this will make an easy dinner and then when I want to use it I can't seem to think of anything good to make with it. And good luck finding a good recipe. Fortunately, I had a stroke of genius this go round and looked up Hillshire Farms website, http://www.gomeat.com/ which is chock full of tasty recipes for keilbasa and smoked sausage. I loved the Southwestern flavors in this recipe and I adapted it a little to take advantage of my well stocked pantry. You can use frozen corn but I thought this was the perfect use for canned corn.

Sausage Skillet Meal
1 pkg. smoked beef or turkey sausage (If you use the turkey sausage this meal will be lower in fat but full on taste)
1 TB olive oil
1 large zuchinni finely chopped
2 cans of corn, drained or 2 Cups of frozen
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of rice cooked
1/2 to 3/4 Cup salsa
1 tsp chili powder
1 Cup cheddar or monterey jack cheese, shredded
1/4 Cup chopped cilantro (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a skillet and add a TB of olive oil. Saute over med high heat sausage, zucchinni, corn and onions for 5 to 8 minutes or until onions are tender and sausage is slightly browned.

Add black beans, rice, salsa and chil powder. Cook and stir for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and top with shredded cheese and cilantro.

Baked Sausage, Spinach 4 Cheese Penne

This baked penne turned out so addicting, I am sitting here two days later craving more. Wow it was good. Of course, I am self avowed pasta addict but this creamy cheesy pasta dish has me hooked. The surprising part for me (this recipe is the result of a sample from Bertolli courtesy of the Foodbuzz tastemaker program) is that it involves using a canned cream sauce. I actually have issues with most canned Italian cream sauces. They always have a funny consistency and aftertaste to me. I am kind of a fresh cream sauce snob. So I went into the review of Bertolli's new 4 Cheese Rosa Sauce with a little trepidation. I wanted to love it. I mean look at the gorgeous package they sent me. But as I said I have past issues with cream sauce. I decided to do a little alteration on one of the recipes they sent me.

Two reasons for this recipe: It sounded like it was right up my alley and secondly, I have a friend who reads this blog that has told me she needs recipes for her Italian sausage. So, Heather this one is for you and for anyone else that needs an absolutely decadent grown up version of baked mac and cheese. We have mentioned my cheapness on this blog before and I rarely buy pre-made sauces unless they are the cheapo Hunts or I make it from scratch.

So, I priced out Bertolli sauces today; because seriously I have every intention of keeping a bottle of this stuff in my pantry just so I can have it on hand to whip up a delish dish for company. Bertolli sauces run about $2.50 to $3 in my neck of woods. But considering the large quantity this dish makes I think it is worth the splurge. Because this dish really can feed 8 to 10 people (Excuse me, am I gushing).

Without further ado my new favorite Rosa Cream sauce pasta dish:


1 Cup ricotta cheese
2 Cups shredded Italian cheese mix or mozarella.
1 Tb dried basil
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/8 tsp pepper
1 lb Italian sausage removed from casings and cooked and crumbled
1 cup fresh spinach
1 jar Bertolli Four Cheese Rosa Sauce
8 oz of penne or rigatoni pasta, cooked and drained
2 Tb Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs
2 Tb grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook sausage until brown. Saute spinach in sausage drippings until slightly wilted. Combine ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 Cups shredded cheese, basil, egg, and pepper. Toss hot rigatoni with sauce, sausage and spinach in large casserole dish (11 x 7-inch). Stir in ricotta mixture.
Top with remaining shredded cheese, bread crumbs and parmesan. Bake covered for 25 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 5 minutes or until bread crumbs and cheese begins to brown and cheese is melted.

Next I am going to give their arrabbiata sauce a try.