Good morning and welcome!

What would be better than meatballs? Meatballs and pesto. Add a buttery combination of cheesy meatballs and creamy pesto to a hazy IPA (or a couple), and you have the perfect meal. I’m not a chef, but I love good home-cooked food with my beer.

Meatballs:

• 1 kg of ground beef/pork mix (Around 20% fat)
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 onions, thinly chopped
• Some Dijon mustard
• Dark soy sauce
• Some black pepper, salt, smoked paprika, and msg
• Grana Padano cheese or similar, thinly grated
• Heavy cream
• Half of a bottle of quadrupel beer

It is not that precise, but since this is a beer blog, of course, we put some beer. I used St Feuillien quadrupel since it’s not my favorite quad to drink, and it works wonders in meatballs. It doesn’t feel like I’m wasting beer in this. I guess a cheap grocery store lager would do the same. You can experiment and do as you wish, as we need some juice in those meatballs so they don’t dry out later.

Now you form all of this into an even mess with your bare hands. Do not be too nice; channel your inner Mike Tyson to it.

Pesto:

• A lot of fresh basil
• Grana Padano or similar, grated
• Nuts, I prefer regular peanuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• A lot of olive oil
• Salt, black pepper

I hope you have a pestle of mortar. First, grind the garlic and nuts nicely thin with olive oil. Then you can start slowly adding your basil in parts. Add more olive oil, your salt, pepper, and cheese, and grate until your pesto reaches the desired consistency.

This is a fatty recipe, so you need a lot of IPA to cut down the fatness. You can vary the fattiness by putting more or less heavy cream and cheese in the meatballs as you wish. The more fatty and creamy you want the meatballs and pesto, the more IPA is needed. It’s up to you. 🙂

Now it is time to cook the meatballs. First, put your skillet on low heat. Your meat is raw, so you do not want to burn the exterior of your meatballs. You can open another beer at this point; it’s going to take a while to cook these. Put your meatballs into the pan. Do not put too much in, your skillet gets cold then. Let them brown nicely while you sip your beer. Enjoy and cherish the taste of your beer. This is a mandatory part of the recipe. I chose this Double Juicy IPA from Locals Only (review coming), a brewery local to São Paulo, Brazil.

Now that your meatballs are cooked, dunk them in the pesto and enjoy. The result should be an unpretentious mess that does absolutely not look appetizing but tastes wonderful.