Friday, August 31, 2007

Italian Meatball Burgers

This summer was our first in our "real" house (re: not an apartment or townhouse) so one of our first warm weather purchases was a grill. Since then, I've spent a lot of time hunting down new recipes to try out on our grill. This one, from the August 2007 issue of Cooking Light, is one of my favorites. These burgers are easy to make and very tasty - the sausage really adds a nice bite to the burgers. As this is my first actual food post, I really wanted a nice picture of our meal, but the universe had other plans. Our grill was being uncooperative for some reason, and the "grill for 10 minute" burgers became "sit on the grill for 45+ minutes and hope they cook" burgers. Being that we didn't start grilling until I got home from the gym at 7:15, by the time our food was ready it was dark and we were starving so I didn't get a picture. Still, the burgers were delicious! I made a few changes to the recipe, which I indicated in italics. We served these with a side of pasta and were good to go.

Italian Meatball Burgers
Ingredients
8 ounces sweet turkey Italian sausage
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed (I ommit this)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound ground sirloin (I use lean ground beef)
Cooking spray
2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
Italian bread rolls, split (I use whole wheat rolls)
3/4 cup fat-free tomato-basil pasta sauce (such as Muir Glen)

Preparation
Prepare grill.
Remove casings from sausage. Combine sausage, oregano, basil, salt, fennel seeds, garlic powder, and ground sirloin. Divide beef mixture into 6 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.
Place patties on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 5 minutes. Turn patties over; grill 2 minutes. Divide fresh mozzarella cheese evenly over patties, and grill an additional 5 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°. Remove from grill; let stand 5 minutes.
Place rolls, cut sides down, on grill rack; grill 1 minute or until toasted. Place 1 patty on bottom half of each roll; top each serving with 2 tablespoons sauce and top half of roll.

Yield
6 servings (serving size: 1 burger)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 375(33% from fat); FAT 13.9g (sat 5.3g,mono 4.4g,poly 1.7g); PROTEIN 28.1g; CHOLESTEROL 80mg; CALCIUM 130mg; SODIUM 894mg; FIBER 1.8g; IRON 4.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 32.7g


1 comment:

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