In any respectable buffet, meatballs, the ultimate finger food that everyone always loves, cannot be missing. My meatballs are cooked in an air fryer, and they turned out not only delicious but also very soft. For me, who didn’t want to fry anything, it was the perfect solution. I prepared almost 100 meatballs for about 45 people, and they all disappeared. Oh no, there were 4 left that at the end of the buffet were claimed by a colleague who had only taken one, so I consider myself more than satisfied with the result. Here are the recipe and tricks to prepare these delicious meatballs.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 100
- Cooking methods: Air frying
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 3.5 lbs mixed ground meat
- 3 eggs
- 2 white sandwich bread
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 slices mortadella
- to taste chopped parsley
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- to taste garlic powder (optional)
- 1 pinch Cayenne pepper
Steps
Start preparing your meatballs by removing the crust from the sandwich bread. Then cut it into cubes, pour them into a bowl with milk, and let it soften. Meanwhile, cut the mortadella into very small pieces, preferably using a tool to chop them into a paste. Now, in a bowl, combine the ground meat, eggs, softened bread, and all the seasonings and mix well.
It will take a few minutes for everything to blend well. For the seasoning amounts, trust your taste, whether you like it more or less spicy, the choice is yours. Now form your meatballs, which should be really small, like a walnut, and try to make them all the same size. It would be great to use small scoops, which I unfortunately didn’t have. Now place the meatballs in your air fryer so they don’t touch each other and I placed about 23-26 pieces per batch, and I have a 5-liter fryer. Let them cook for 10-12 minutes at 356°F, but remember to turn them after about 5 minutes. Just open the fryer and shake it a bit, the meatballs will turn on their own. Once cooked, place the meatballs on paper towels; even though you don’t need oil for cooking, the meat fat will ooze out.
When you have finished cooking all the meatballs, arrange them on a serving plate and decorate with cherry tomatoes, pickles, and radish (cut into a mushroom shape) as I did, you’ll make a great impression.
HERE more POLPETTE ideas for you.
And if you also prepare meatballs during the Christmas holidays, here’s a cute idea on how to present them, just lay them on a serving plate, I used a simple slate one, ideally a tree-shaped plate. Moreover, you will need some rosemary sprigs, pomegranate, yellow bell pepper, and a star-shaped cookie cutter and the game is done, cute idea, right?
Saby recommends…
Since every air fryer is different, I recommend tasting the first meatballs in cooking after 8 minutes. Mine only needed 10 minutes to cook the meatballs perfectly, but maybe yours needs less or a few more minutes.
