Sixteen meatballs from a pound and a half of beef, fifty minutes, and one oven-safe skillet that does the browning, the cooking and the sauce.
The meat goes into the pan raw. It is browned for its crust and then finished in a 400 degree oven, which is where it reaches temperature — the crust and the cooking are two separate jobs done in two separate places.
Why This Recipe Works
- Chopping the spinach finely lets it distribute through the mixture rather than sitting in clumps.
- Egg and breadcrumbs bind a lean mixture that has a cup of wet spinach in it.
- Mixing just until combined keeps the meatballs tender rather than springy.
- Sealing the meat fully around the cube is what keeps the cheese inside during a twenty-five minute cook.
- Deglazing the browned skillet with broth and butter turns the fond into the pale sauce the finished plate sits in.
Ingredient Notes
- Low-moisture mozzarella
- Four ounces cut into sixteen cubes — one for each meatball. Low-moisture, so it melts without releasing water into the meat around it.
- Baby spinach
- A cup, finely chopped and mixed raw into the meat. It is what gives the dark green running through the cut interior.
- Fine breadcrumbs
- A third of a cup, IN the mixture. There is no crumb coating on the outside of these meatballs.
- Beef broth and lemon juice
- Half a cup and a tablespoon, for the pan sauce. Between them and the butter they make a pale sauce — there is no tomato in this recipe.
How to Make It
Mix just until combined
Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix ground beef, spinach, garlic, Parmesan, egg, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper just until combined.
Sixteen, each sealed on a cube
Divide into 16 portions. Flatten each, place a mozzarella cube in the center, and seal the meat fully around the cheese.
Brown for the crust, no coating
Heat oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Brown meatballs on several sides until a deep crust forms; do not crumb-coat or deep-fry them.
Into the oven, to 160F
Transfer the skillet to the oven and cook until the centers of the meatballs reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Butter, broth, lemon
Move meatballs to a plate. Add butter and broth to the skillet, scrape up browned bits, and simmer 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice.
Back into the pale sauce
Return meatballs to the pale buttery pan sauce and finish with parsley.
Browned in the Pan, Cooked in the Oven
In these stuffed meatballs the meat goes in raw, the skillet only makes the crust, and the oven does the cooking.
- Raw, and mixed lightly1 1/2 lb of ground beef with 1 cup of finely chopped baby spinach, 3 garlic cloves, 1/3 cup Parmesan, 1 egg, 1/3 cup fine breadcrumbs, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper, mixed JUST until combined. The breadcrumbs are in the mixture; nothing is crumbed on the outside.
- Sixteen, sealed fullyDivided into 16, each flattened around one of 16 cubes of low-moisture mozzarella and SEALED FULLY. A thin patch is where the cheese escapes during twenty-five minutes of cooking, and you want cheese visible inside the cut meatball.
- A crust, not a cookBrowned on several sides in 1 tbsp olive oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high, until a deep crust forms. The recipe is explicit that they are not crumb-coated and not deep-fried. This stage builds colour and fond and leaves the middle raw.
Check before you continue
160F — Instant-read thermometer, into the meat BETWEEN the cheese cubes
The skillet goes into a 400F oven and stays there until the centres read 160F - the USDA figure for ground beef, five degrees below what ground poultry takes. Between the cubes, not into one: a probe in molten mozzarella reads the cheese, and the meat around it is what has to be safe. This is the only step in the recipe that actually cooks the beef through.
- The pan does one more jobMeatballs out, then 2 tbsp butter and 1/2 cup beef broth into the same skillet, browned bits scraped up, simmered 2 minutes, and 1 tbsp of lemon juice stirred in. Everything the browning built is on the base of that pan.
- Pale, and it stays paleThe meatballs go back into the buttery sauce and are finished with 2 tbsp parsley. No tomato sauce, no ranch seasoning and no bacon - the sauce is pale, and that is what these three exclusions protect.
Success Tips
- Stop mixing as soon as it holds together; worked further, the meatballs go dense.
- Seal the meat right around the cube, with no thin patch for the cheese to find.
- Take the temperature between the cubes rather than into one, or you will be reading the cheese.
Serving Ideas
Four servings, four meatballs each, on white plates in the pale buttery pan sauce with chopped parsley over them — the deep brown crust outside and the melted cheese and spinach showing when one is cut.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the tomato sauce?
There is none. The sauce here is butter, beef broth and lemon juice made in the browning pan, and it stays pale — no tomato sauce is part of this recipe.
Should these be crumbed and fried?
No. Step 3 leaves it out. The crust comes from browning bare meat in a skillet.
How do I check 160 degrees?
Into the meat between the cheese cubes rather than into one. 160 degrees Fahrenheit is the standard for ground beef.
