Today, an easy and quick recipe for a main dish: ricotta meatballs.
A recipe that will please everyone, young and old. In fact, we will prepare simple and tasty ricotta meatballs that can be prepared in advance and then cooked.
To please my son, I added some bologna, but they can be made without anything or with cooked ham. With this recipe, you’ll get soft, delicious balls for an alternative dinner.
They are very simple to make and won’t take much time; in the end, we can cook them in the oven, in an air fryer, or fry them in hot oil and serve them with a simple tomato sauce or a salad.
I love making meatballs, whether they’re made of meat, fish, couscous and broccoli, with beans or with chickpeas, they are always very appreciated at home.
Let’s see together, step by step, how to make this recipe.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: Approx. 20 meatballs
- Cooking methods: Air Fryer, Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
- Energy 109.80 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 5.44 (g) of which sugars 0.44 (g)
- Proteins 6.13 (g)
- Fat 7.02 (g) of which saturated 3.29 (g)of which unsaturated 3.46 (g)
- Fibers 0.29 (g)
- Sodium 188.84 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 25 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 2 cups g ricotta
- 1 cup g grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/3 cup g breadcrumbs
- 3 oz g bologna
- 1 egg
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bunch parsley
- to taste olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste breadcrumbs (for coating)
- 1 pinch pepper
Tools
Below are links to some of the tools used for the recipe
- 1 Scale
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Knife
- 1 Air Fryer
- 1 Cutting Board
Let’s Make the Ricotta Meatballs Together.
To prepare the ricotta meatballs, make sure you have fairly dry ricotta. If yours isn’t, let it drain in a sieve.
Take a bunch of parsley and finely chop it with a garlic clove on a cutting board with a knife or in a manual chopper. The important thing is that the parsley is dry; otherwise, it will clump.
Finely chop the bologna as well. You can buy a thick slice or one of those small bologna sausages.
In a bowl, put all the ingredients: the ricotta, the grated Parmesan cheese, the chopped bologna, garlic and parsley, a small sprinkle of pepper, a whole egg, and the breadcrumbs. The amount of breadcrumbs will depend a bit on the moisture of your ricotta and the size of the egg. In the end, you should get a soft but workable mixture.
Slightly grease your hands and form balls by taking about 1 oz of the mixture. Place the mixture in one palm and roll it between your palms to give it a round shape. After making all the balls, roll them in breadcrumbs and place them on a plate. Put the balls in the fridge for half an hour, then repeat the coating step. This will prevent the meatballs from spreading during cooking and will help them maintain their shape and have a good crust.
Place the ricotta meatballs on a baking sheet with parchment paper if you decide to bake them in the oven or in the air fryer if you choose this cooking method. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil on top and bake for 20/25 minutes at 350°F, or in the air fryer for 20 minutes at 350°F.
Take them out of the oven and enjoy! Before eating them, take a picture of your meatballs and post it on social media, tagging me (a curly cook on Instagram and Facebook) to let me know which sauce you’ll eat them with!
A Curly Cook Recommends
You can use cow’s milk ricotta, sheep’s milk ricotta, or even buffalo ricotta. The important thing is, as mentioned before, that it is dry. Otherwise, you’ll need too much breadcrumbs, and the result won’t be optimal.
