meat balls with dried figs and mandarin

The Neapolitan tradition wants to add the raisins and pine nuts to the meat mixture, whether the meatballs are fried or whether they are in sauce.

In this period I consider the pine nuts an ingredient too expensive and reducing the quantity we would not solve the problem.

So I chose to eliminate them, thinking though of an alternative that had flavor because I truly believe that it makes no sense to make meat-only meatballs.

In general what you put us there, the richer they are, the more tasty they are!

This principle applies to all the meatballs from those of meat to those of fish, from those of eggplant to those of bread only!

So I chose to add two typically winter but very tasty ingredients.

Ingredients for 70-80 meatballs:

750gr of pork and veal

250gr of beef

200g of sponge bread in milk

100g of grated cheese

A nice bunch of chopped parsley

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2-3 eggs

6 dried figs in pieces not too small

The chopped peel of 2 mandarins

Half a clove of grated garlic

Breadcrumbs

salt

pepper

Put the breadcrumbs to sponge in the milk and all the other ingredients in a container.

Squeeze the crumb and add it to the dough.

Knead the dough with your hands and make meatballs the size of a walnut.

Pass the meatballs in the breadcrumbs and keep them in the refrigerator until ready to cook them.

(can also be prepared the day before)

For ventilated oven cooking:

Bring the oven to 250 ° place the meatballs on a baking sheet without borders and bake for 7 minutes.