Bacon wrapped cheesy meat cubes.

My friend Jonathan made some bacon wrapped cheesy meatballs that looked pretty good.  I asked him for the recipe and of course, there wasn’t one.  He made it up as he went along.  If I wanted some cheesy, bacon wrapped meatballs I’d have to figure it out on my own.  The first problem I had to overcome was my absolute hatred for shaping meatballs.  I always start out very meticulous, forming 1 inch balls.  Before I’m halfway through I’m so sick of rolling meatballs that they start getting larger and larger.  It’s hard to cook 1 inch meatballs and 4 inch meatballs at the same time.  I decided to nix the meatballs and instead make some meat cubes.  MUCH easier.

 

not pictured: 1 lb of bacon

 Heat 2 1 Tb Olive Oil.  Add chopped onion.

 

Sauté until softened but not browned. 

Turn off heat and add garlic.  Stir till fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small bowl shred the top half of the hotdog bun (you can use two slices of plain old white bread but all I had was a hotdog bun).  Add the egg.

 

Mash and stir until well combined, creating a panade.

In large bowl add the Panade, onions & garlic, and the Ricotta cheese.  Stir until well combined.

 

Add salt and pepper.  Stir to combine.

Add meat. Stir until all mixed up together. 

Stir in Italian seasoning.

You can dump the meat mixture into a 9x9 square pan or just put it on a plate and form it into a 9x9 square.  Put it in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350.

Take a pound of bacon and cut the slices in half. 

When the meat mixture is firm (but not frozen) slice it into 25 cubes.

Wrap each cube in a half strip of bacon.  You may not have enough.  Either open some more bacon, or just have a couple of bacon-free meatcubes.

Bake for 20 minutes.  Switch from “bake” to “broil” and broil until bacon is crisp and GBD.  Eat as is, or add to pasta sauce.  Mmmm delicious cheesy meatballs  meatcubes.