Meals · Skillet & sheet-pan mains
Bacon-wrapped pork meatballs
Juicy pork meatballs bound with egg and parmesan, each one wrapped in half a slice of bacon and baked on a rack until the bacon crisps. With no breadcrumbs and no sauce, they are good hot for dinner and cold from the fridge the next day.
- Time
- 50 min (20 prep + 30 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 547 kcal
- Protein
- 57 g
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 lb pork mince, lean ground pork or pork mince, not sausage meat
- 1 large egg
- scant 1/2 cup grated parmesan, finely grated
- 1/2 tsp salt, the bacon and cheese bring more
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (optional)
- 10 slices bacon, thin-cut, halved crosswise; the weight is the crisp bacon you eat
Steps
- Heat the oven to 400°F and set a wire rack on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Put the pork, egg, parmesan, salt and pepper in a large bowl, with the garlic and onion powder, if using.
- Mix with your hands just until evenly combined and stop as soon as you cannot see streaks of egg, because overworked meatballs turn tight and dense. With wet hands, shape into 20 balls about the size of a golf ball.
- Wrap each meatball in half a slice of bacon, stretching it a little so it reaches around, and set it on the rack with the ends underneath and 1 inch of space around it. A toothpick will hold any that unroll.
- Bake 22–26 minutes, until the bacon is browned and the center of a meatball reads 160°F. For crisper bacon, finish for 2 minutes under the broiler, watching closely.
- Rest 5 minutes. Keeps 3 days in the fridge; reheat on a tray at 350°F for about 10 minutes.
Good to know
Can I use regular ground pork?
Yes. The meatballs are richer and a little softer, at about 44 instead of 54.
Not eating strictly carnivore?
A spoonful of mustard in the mix, or a sugar-free barbecue sauce brushed on in the last 5 minutes, are the usual additions.
Per
- Calories
- 262
- Protein
- (41%)
- 27 g
- Fat
- (57%)
- 17 g
- Carbohydrates
- (2%)
- 1 g
- of which sugar
- <1 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 496 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2188 kcal goes into the pot and 997 g of ingredients comes out as about 835 g of food: 262 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.