Bacon Wrapped Meatballs with Sun-Dried Tomato, Basil and Walnut Pesto

by lisa | 23 November 2012 15:25

I love meatballs. My Italian father-in-law used to always make us meatballs with marinara sauce when he was visiting. I loved that man and boy, could he cook. Tonight we decided to make meatballs, but I wanted to try something new. These turned out even better than I thought they would and I’ll be making this variation again. They even look special enough to serve at a dinner party. You’ll just have to trust me on that one because my food photography skills are seriously lacking. Natural light is the best when taking food pictures and I just don’t get much of that here. It’s totally dark when I get home and start making dinner. My wish list for Christmas includes a prime lens for my camera and Lightroom 4 photo editing software. I’m hoping those two things will make me look like I know what I’m doing (even though I don’t).

Meatball Ingredients (for 12 meatballs)

600 grams (about a pound) of grass- fed ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 large mushrooms, finely chopped
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
12 pieces of bacon

Put all of your ingredients (except the bacon) into a large mixing bowl. Now dig in and get your hands dirty! Combine it all by hand until well mixed.
Roll into balls. Ours were slightly larger than golf balls.
Wrap each meatball with a piece of bacon and secure the bacon in place with a toothpick.
Place your meatballs on a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated 200C (400 F) oven for about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and spoon 1 tsp of pesto on top of each meatball.
Return to oven for another 5-10 minutes.
Pesto on and ready to go in the oven again

Pesto Ingredients

This pesto recipe is loosely based on this one over at Everyday Paleo.

2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1 cup of walnuts, unsalted
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Put everything in your food processor and pulse until you reach a pesto consistency. If it seems too thick, just add in a little more olive oil.
Pesto
This pesto would be good on just about anything (chicken, steak, inside an omelette, on celery or on paleo walnut crackers). You’ll have extra pesto, so now you know what to do with it!
Meatballs!