My Mini Meatballs with Gelatina Extra di Aglianico

Mini meatballs make an amazing appetizer.  I made some recently with gelatina extra di Aglianico from Villa Matilde that gave mine an extra kick.

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Ingredients for 25 mini meatballs: 1 lb ground beef, 1 egg, ¼ cup freshly ground breadcrumbs, 1 tbsp Carmasciano cheese, salt, pepper to taste

Ingredients for the mini meatball sauce:  100 g gelatin extra di aglianico, ½ onion from Montoro, 4 tbsp tomato sauce, Italian parsley, extra virgin olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes

Directions:

To make the mini meatball sauce,  dice the onion and brown in a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.  Add the gelatin and the tomato sauce.  Simmer slowly uncovered for about 10 minutes.  Stir continuously to ensure that the sauce does not burn.  Add a pinch of salt, red pepper flakes,  and a sprinkle of finely chopped Italian parsley.  Set aside.

In the meantime, mix  (by hand) together all the ingredients for the meatballs  in a bowl.  Shape into small mini meatballs and place on a baking sheet.  Broil in a preheated   250° F oven for 10 minutes.

Toss the meatballs in the mini meatball sauce and simmer under low heat for another 10 minutes or so.  

Serve hot ish…

Note:  For this recipe, I wanted to use as many products from Campania as I could. Carmasciano cheese is practically impossible to find outside of the Avellino province.  Parmagiano Reggiano or Grana Padana can be substituted.  I also used onions from Montoro, another product from Campania, but any sweet onions would work perfectly.