Pesto Meatballs

This month I was assigned Gastronomical Sovereignty for the Secret Recipe Club. Kristy is a super talented social media strategist and owns the company ohksocialmedia. Her blog is packed with healthy recipes featuring all organic ingredients, so I highly suggest you check it out yourself. There were a few recipes I was deciding between, but since I had a few jars of pesto on hand, I knew this recipe would be the one to make this month.

My older brother recently went to Paris and my parents went to Italy, and they both brought me back a few food-related items. One of which was pesto. Since I'm a huge fan of the basil-based sauce, I wanted to find a way to incorporate it into a meal besides just plopping it on pasta or on crusty bread. By mixing pesto along with a ground beef base, it gave the meatballs so much flavor and really complimented a simple bed of pasta. I love the idea of this and how they turned out. I can't wait to try other meat and sauce combinations in the future. Enjoy! 

Printable Recipe

Ingredients 

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1/2 onion, finely diced
• 2 tsp. garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup pesto, homemade or store-bought
• Salt and pepper, to taste

To serve:

• Marinara sauce
• Pasta
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

OR

• Extra pesto
• Pasta
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Olive oil

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl with your hands. Make sure it's worked in well. Make 1-2" wide balls in the palm of your hand. Place formed balls in the prepared baking pan. 

Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Remove from oven. Either place the meatballs in marinara sauce and serve over pasta with Parmesan cheese. Or mix pasta with olive oil, salt and pepper, then top with a little extra pesto and meatballs. 

Source: Adapted from Gastronomical Sovereignty