Today a sensational experiment: we will fry some potato and tuna meatballs without dipping them in oil and without stirring them! You got it right: fried meatballs (or almost) for everyone! To make them, we will need a special tool: find out what we need!
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Identity Card of the Recipe
- 163 KCal Calories per serving
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Ingrediants
For 3ì4 meatballs
- Cooked, boiled food: 300 g of potatoes
- 25 g of breadcrumbs
- 40 g of black olives
- Optional: 5 ml (1 teaspoon) of extra virgin olive oil
- If necessary: 1 tablespoon of white flour of type 00
- 1 sprig of parsley
- 1 pinch of pepper
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 g of tuna in drained oil
- 50 g of spreadable or robiola cheese
To cover
- About 50 g of breadcrumbs
- Optional: 60 g of eggs
- 10 ml of milk
- 1 pinch of salt
Materials Needed
- Air fryer
- Bowl
- Pot for cooking potatoes
- Potato masher
- Dishes
- Pliers
Preparation
- Boil the potatoes in their skins, after having carefully washed and scraped them.
- After about 40 minutes (or when the heart of the potatoes appears soft), purée them with a vegetable mill or a potato masher.
- Collect the mashed potatoes in a bowl, add the tuna in drained oil, the spreadable cheese (or the robiola), the parsley, the chopped black olives, the breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper. If necessary, add a tablespoon of White flour.
Pay attention to consistency
The consistency of the mixture depends on the type of potatoes. In this case, we recommend the use of white potatoes or potatoes with red skin, particularly floury and suitable for this purpose.
During cooking, potatoes can absorb water in different doses: for this reason, it is not possible to determine the exact amount of breadcrumbs and flour to add.- With a teaspoon, take a portion of the dough and knead it in your hands to obtain a meatball the size of a walnut. Roll the meatball on the breadcrumbs. Proceed in this way until the dough is finished.
- If you like, you can dip the meatballs in a solution of egg, milk and a pinch of salt, then pass them once again on the breadcrumbs: in this way, the breading will be thicker.
- Pour a tablespoon of oil into a plate, then roll the meatballs so that the oil coats them lightly.
- At this point, proceed with cooking. As an alternative to the classic frying in boiling oil, we suggest using the air fryer, a tool capable of cooking food by emulating traditional frying, but eliminating the possible damage associated with this method.
Air fryer: what to know
It is a particular tool that uses air (and not oil) to cook food, covering it with a crunchy casing, but leaving the heart soft. The peculiarity of this method is the speed with which the air is circulated inside: the food is cooked evenly, simulating the result obtained by traditional frying.
The advantages offered by such a tool are:- It can be fried completely without or with a little oil
- You can cook meat, fish, vegetables and even cakes
- It guarantees a very tasty but definitely healthier cooking than the classic frying
- With this tool, the risks associated with the use of boiling oil are eliminated
- It speeds up cooking times compared to the oven because, in air fryers, the heat increases very quickly
- It does not leave bad smells in the environment
Obviously the result is not the same as that obtained with classic frying, but many people find the flavor much better.
- Preheat the instrument following the instructions suggested in the instruction booklet (5 minutes at 80 ° C in our case).
- Open the basket and insert the potato balls. Close the door and cook at 200 ° C for 12 minutes, turning the meatballs halfway through cooking.
The alternatives to the air fryer
Alternatively, the meatballs can be cooked in a pan with a drizzle of oil, fried in oil or baked in the oven at 180 ° C for about 20 minutes.- Open the basket, remove the meatballs with tongs and serve immediately.
Alice's comment - PersonalCooker
The potato balls are special to appreciate as an appetizer: you can combine them with a delicate yogurt-based sauce or try dipping them in mustard sauce!Nutritional values and Health Comment on the recipe
The Potato and Tuna Meatballs are foods that belong to the group of dishes.
They have an average energy intake, mainly provided by carbohydrates, followed by lipids and finally by proteins.
Carbohydrates are mainly complex, unsaturated fatty acids and peptides of high biological value.
Fiber is present in medium quantities, as is cholesterol.
These Potato and Tuna Meatballs are suitable for most diets, including those for overweight and metabolic diseases.
They contain gluten and low lactose, which is why they should be excluded from the nutritional schemes for these types of intolerances.
They are not relevant to the lacto-ovo vegetarian and vegan philosophy.
The average portion as a second course is 150-250 g (about 245-405 kcal).
