These were….good…interesting…different…worth a try in your own kitchen. This batch made almost 40 meatballs. I used ten tonight and the rest I froze for future meals.

Cast of Characters

3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup toasted almonds
Pinch of sugar
1 pound ground chuck
1/2 cup shredded cheese (Romano or parm.)
1 egg
salt
cinnamon
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

What to do:

1. Thaw your meat!

2. In a bowl combine 3/4 cup bread crumbs with 1/4 cup of milk. Mix and set aside.

3. Toast almonds (I just heated them in a pan on the stove). When they are toasted put 1/2 cup of almonds and a tablespoon of sugar into a food processor. Pulse until they are all ground up. This will, by the way, smell amazingly like Christmas time at the mall when booths are set up selling candy coated nuts. Be still my heart.

4. Either by hand or with a mixer, add all of the ingredients together and mix it up really well.

5. Form into meatballs, freeze what you will not be using tonight.

6. Using a little olive oil, cook these on low heat over the stove until they are cooked through.

Tonight I simply added these to linguine noodles with marinara sauce. We ate raw veggies and cottage cheese on the side. The meat balls themselves are sweet and have a unique flavor due to the cinnamon. I was not sold on this flavor mixed with marinara sauce. I am going to experiment with different sauces and will let you know how I use the remaining 30 meatballs!