Mushroom balls on mozzarella’s pesto
No, it’s not that I am becoming vegetarian. What happens is that I enjoy tasting new things and reinterpreting, so in this case I bring you these veggie balls that I’ve found on this fantastic blog (Mi mesa para tres), without meat. The so called “meatballs”, but without “meat”.
You already see their appearance, meatball-like but a bit darker. Their texture is soft, with small bits, depending on how much you grind mushrooms. And their taste, delightful and inimitable, I recommend you that you try them to enjoy the not very usual hazelnuts-mushrooms tandem.
I have adjusted quantities following my eternal search for variations; the result is just spectacular and you can combine them with a vast number of sauces: tomato, mango, olives, etc.
Ingredients (2 people)
250gr fresh mushrooms
20 toasted hazelnuts
1 thick slice of previous day’s bread (or 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs)
1 egg
1 garlic clove
30gr grinded Parmesan
Salt and pepper
For mozzarella’s pesto
40ml olive oil (I have used extra virgin)
1 handful pine nuts
1 handful basil leaves
1 garlic clove
1/3 mozzarella ball ( 3-4 slices)
Salt, pepper
Directions
Chop garlic and crush it in the mortar together with hazelnuts. Save it for later.
Wash and mix mushrooms with a mixer until you have a homogeneous dough. Beat egg and mix it with bread crumble (or crumble the slice of bread before), mushrooms and the mixture from the mortar (garlic and hazelnut). Season with salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Make small balls and put them in an oven tray, where you have previously put baking paper. Bake it at 180ºC for aprox. 25-30 minutes.
To be considered
You can add a handful of ground meat to make carnivorous happy :-).