Zucchini Beef Meatballs made with ricotta cheese are soft, pillowy, and utterly delicious. I like to serve them with pasta marinara for a lightened up comfort meal that got raves from all.
Put the zucchini in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the excess moisture. Add it to a bowl along with the beef, egg, cheese, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. I like to use my stand mixer with the paddle attachment to mix ground meat for meatballs and meatloaves, I find it does a perfect gentle job of mixing everything well without compacting the meat. You can also do this with clean hands. Whichever method you chose, mix the ingredients so they're well blended together without over mixing.
I use my 1 1/2 inch cookie scoop to scoop out the meat mixture and roll into 20 balls. Place on a cookie sheet and lightly brush the balls with olive oil. You can refrigerate the meatballs at this point if you like. I like to refrigerate for about 20 minutes to allow them to firm up.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375F
Cook the meatballs for about 10-15 minutes, then finish under the broiler to get some nice caramelization. A thermometer should read 160F when they're done.
Serve hot over spaghetti and your favorite marinara sauce, with a shower of Parmesan cheese.
Makes 20 meatballs, serves 4.
Notes
As an alternative cooking method you can brown the meatballs and then finish cooking them in the marinara sauce.*These Zucchini Beef Meatballs were lightly adapted from a recipe in Martha Stewart Living.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
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