The Stale Bread and Smoked Bacon Meatballs are a great recipe to recycle stale bread and make delicious, soft, and tasty meatballs. I served them with a simple tomato pulp sauce.

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Cheap
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Portions: 16 meatballs (for 4 people)
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

24 oz tomato puree
1 onion (small)
1 celery (stalk)
2 tbsps olive oil
2 pinches fine salt
1 pinch sugar
3.5 oz stale bread (whole wheat)
7 oz smoked bacon (diced)
2 eggs (medium)
3 tbsps Parmesan cheese (grated)
4 tbsps breadcrumbs
7 fl oz milk
2 pinches fine salt
2 pinches black pepper (ground)
3.5 oz cream cheese
1 tsp parsley (chopped)

Preparation

In a pot, sauté the chopped onion and celery with a bit of oil. Add the tomato sauce, salt, sugar, and cook for about 20 minutes.
In a bowl, soak the stale bread in milk for about 15 minutes.
Once the bread has softened, mash it with a fork. Add the cream cheese, smoked bacon chopped with a mixer, Parmesan, eggs, two tablespoons of breadcrumbs, parsley, adjust salt and pepper. Now mix all the ingredients well.
Form meatballs, each weighing about 2 oz (you will make about 16 meatballs).
Place two tablespoons of breadcrumbs on a plate and roll each meatball in it.
In a pan, heat a little oil and fry the meatballs for a few minutes.
At this point, add the sauce to the pan with the meatballs and cook for about half an hour with the lid on. If it dries out too much, add a glass of water.
Sprinkle with a bit of parsley and serve.