Italian recipes with minced meat
A perfect recipe to prepare in advance, to enjoy before dinner, sipping a good farm beer during the aperitif. A crunchy potato pie, with soft and irresistible stringy layers inside.
#1 Potato and minced meat gratin
Ingredients
- 400g minced beef
- ½ tablespoon of spicy paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 300 g of drained peeled tomatoes, diced
- 150 g of fresh spinach
- 5-7 potatoes
- Buffalo mozzarella or stringy cheese
- Extra virgin olive oil
Method
Let's start preparing our potato and minced meat gratin. Fry the onion and after a few minutes cook the beef, seasoning with salt, pepper and spices. After about five minutes, add the tomatoes and, subsequently, add the spinach, allowing them to soften. Remove from the heat and, while the filling cools, cut the potatoes into thin slices, grease a plumcake mold and line it carefully with the raw potato slices.
Now you have to prepare to create two or three layers of mozzarella and meat. Cut the drained mozzarella and arrange a few slices on the potato layer and on the edges. Pour part of the filling into the mold and cover with other thin slices of potatoes, mozzarella, filling until finishing with a final layer of potatoes. Bake at 180° for an hour and, before slicing, let your potato and minced meat gratin rest for at least 15 minutes.
#2 Tomatoes stuffed with meat
Tomatoes stuffed with meat are a tasty, fresh and perfect second course also as a snack at work or as a tasty family dinner. And, last but not least, they are very easy to cook!
Ingredients
- 4 copper tomatoes
- 200 g of minced beef
- 50 g of Parmigiano Reggiano
- 50 g of breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- salt, pepper, parsley and thyme
Method
Let's get started straight away: cut the top of the tomatoes and scoop out the pulp; salt the tomatoes and then leave them upside down to drain for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the chopped tomato pulp with all the remaining ingredients, adjusting with the breadcrumbs to obtain a compact and soft mixture.
Now you can stuff the tomatoes, close them with their caps and bake them at 180° for about 40 minutes. Let them cool before serving. A variant to obtain a dish complete with every nutrient? Use only 100 g of minced meat and add 100 g of boiled white rice: in a single recipe you will have carbohydrates, proteins, fibers and vitamins!
#3 Nests of cheese and minced meat
Ground beef, in our kitchens, often means meatballs , meatloaf and hamburgers . But not today! We show you a new recipe that could be the winning choice to convince children to eat meat or a tasty alternative to offer instead of industrial junk food.
Ingredients
- 100g minced beef
- 150 ml of milk
- 1 onion
- 2 eggs
- 70 g of white bread
- 200 g of sour cream
- 200 g of hard cheese (try Moringhello )
- salt, pepper to taste
Method
Soften the slices of white bread with milk, soaking them and squeezing them well. In a bowl, combine the minced meat, the chopped onion, the drained bread and add 75 ml of milk; salt and pepper before mixing everything until you obtain a homogeneous mixture. From this mixture, shape small balls the size of an apple, place them on a baking tray and make a disc with a central hollow from each ball, to form our nests.
Let's move on to preparing the filling: add the grated cheese to the sour cream, eggs and mix well. Place two or three spoons of filling in each nest and bake at 200° for 30/40 minutes. You can decorate each nest with a sprig of scented rosemary.
Enjoy your meal!
