Food Hussy Recipe: Egg Free Stuffed Meatballs

I love spaghetti and meatballs but my husband is allergic to eggs so I've never made meatballs for him. But recently I was able to call in to Christopher Kimball's podcast Milk Street Radio and ask him and Sara Moulton a question (um awesome!) - so I put him to the test and asked what could I do?

And they gave me the secret to replacing eggs in meatballs, meatloaf - or even crab cakes! And I was pretty surprised by it!

A panade! Admittedly, I said - a what? A panade is just a mixture of starch and liquid added to ground meat. Christopher and Sara said you just soak bread in milk and add that to your meat - that will act as the binder to the meat like an egg would and keep it moist.

They also said the panade would work with crab cakes - so I'll have to test that next!

I just took one piece of white bread and soaked it in maybe half a cup of milk. I just stuck it in the milk and forked it around a bit and it dissolved pretty quick. I didn't want it to completely disintegrate so I didn't leave it in too long.

Next - I make-a-the-meatballs! (Imagine an old Italian woman saying it!) I went super simple to just see if this would work - and I had some mozzarella cheese in the fridge so I decided to ramp it up by stuffing them! I would say I used about 75% of the panade for 1 pound of meat. Also - because you're using a slice of bread - no need for breadcrumbs.

After mixing my hamburger with the panade and seasonings - I grabbed a pinch of meat and put the chunk of mozzarella in the middle then molded the meat around the cheese.

Then I put my meatballs on a cooling rack on a foil lined cookie sheet. I also sprayed the cooling rack so they don't stick.

Luckily I had a piece of mozzarella left and Mysty was more than eager to take that off my hands. 

After about 20 minutes - I took them out - I would say that next time I would take them out at 15 minutes. I think my cheese chunks were pretty big and they exploded a bit. But hey - exploding cheese is not a bad thing. And I was able to lift the cooling rack and save grab some of the cheese and put it on my pasta!

Then I topped with my favorite jarred marinara and dinner was served. Larry was so surprised that he got to eat meatballs! He's always hesitant when I try something new but once he tried them - he was sold! He even ate leftovers - which he NEVER does! THAT is success!

Stuffed Egg-Free Meatballs!

Ingredients:

* 1 pound ground beef or pork
* Favorite seasonings: salt, pepper, Italian blend
      * I used Colonel De's Parmageddon and Where's the Beef
* 1 slice bread
* 1/2 cup milk
* 8 oz mozzarella cheese, cubed

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line cookie sheet with foil, top with a baking rack and spray with cooking spray.
2. Mix together milk and bread and mush the bread into the milk until it's a thick pasty mixture. 
3. Mix together ground meat, seasonings and some of the panade mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add the panade gradually and just use enough for the meat to bind properly - you don't want it soupy. Do not overwork - you'll make the meatballs tough. 
4. Grab a pinch of the meat mixture and place a cheese cube in the middle - then wrap the meat around the cheese. 
5. Roll it slightly to a ball shape and set on the baking rack. 
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until meatballs are browned and cooked through.