Pizza Balls; A Quick Bite Stuffed Pizza Appetizer

These pizza balls are crispy outside, pillowy inside, a very pizza appetizer bites. Fill them with your family favorite, think pepperoni, sausage, bacon and melted cheese. Great for an afterschool snack or an ultimate game day appetizer. Enjoy the goodness of  homemade pizza bites.

Super easy pizza bites, that freezes very well for a handy afterschool snack or an appetizer for your next gathering. Fill it with your favorite pizza ingredients or do as I did with this awesome beyond this world parm sausage and spinach filling.

I’ve been a tiny bit under the weather which means I have one single type of food in mind “Comfort Food”. Snacks are the best buddy at this time and among which comes all things pizza. I consider pizza a genius type of food as it is: a) heals your broken soul b) the possibilites are endless when it comes to the shape or the toppings/filling.
Soccer season is in full swing and we are so much pressed in time, which always get the creativity out of moms to invent easy, kids approved snacks for kids. This one was a winner, dipped in some hot marinara or pizza sauce this created the best snack for us to help getting us through the day until dinner time.

My 6 years old- soon to be 7- cutie pie is a soccer fan, we were buying his soccer team uniform one day then we headed home. He was so proud of the uniform and was so excited to get it. Then all of a sudden he just said where is it? where is the sweat part?. Looking confused I said what sweating part are you talking about? This triangle mom, don’t you understand?!! that one should be there. He was so frustrated and started crying. I was even more confused, I thought his coach told them about something special to wear or put. 
Then hubby, hopped in and understood everything. The guy always saw those players in the TV with a triangle of sweat in the front of their shirts, so he thought it was sold like this!!! with darker color in the front and underarm areas !!!😂 😂. This was seriously very very funny, and we spent a great deal of that night trying to convince him how these dark spots appeared hehehehehe.

H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S.  A soul lifting incident indeed.

Back to today’s recipe, let’s see in details how to make it.

In a large skillet brown the sausage in olive oil. 

Add spinach, parsley, salt and pepper and cook.

Turn off heat and add the cheese.

In your food processor pulse the bread to fine grain.

Add water and cornstarch and knead until well combined.

Take a small portion of the dough and fill, I recommend filling it to the max.. it is more delicious this way. I also added some shredded mozzarella to the stuffing while making it. I’ve many cheese lovers in my family.

Optional: freeze the balls you’ve just made for about 30 minutes just to hold its shape especially if you are using lots of cheese inside.

Dip the balls into egg then into bread crumbs and off to the frying pan.

 Serve with some marinara or pizza sauce, so delicious. This is a freezer friendly recipe, where you can freeze the unfried pizza balls and when it is time to eat just pull out the amount you need, fry and serve. If you have any leftovers, store in the fridge and just heat then with a little bit of oil in a skillet over medium heat, do not microwave, they will be soggy and lose their charm.

I hope you’ll like this recipe and please if you make this recipe, snap a pic and hashtag it #amiraspantry — I love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter!

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Print

Pizza bites.

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

50 mins

Total Time

1 hr 10 mins

 

The ultimate after school snack or game day appetizer.

Course: Snack

Servings: 6 people

Author: Amira

Ingredients

For the stuffing:

• 1 Tablespoons olive oil.
• 1 pound chicken/turkey/Italian sausage.
• 1 cup tightly packed fresh spinach chopped.
• 1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley chopped.
• salt and pepper to taste.
• 4 oz cream cheese.
• 1/2-3/4 cup parmesan cheese.

For the bites:

• 1 loaf of bread cubed with edges removed.
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt powder.
• 5 teaspoon cornstarch.
• 1 cup water.

For frying:

• 1 egg beaten with a dash of black pepper.
• 1 cup of bread crumbs.
• Oil for frying.

Instructions

Make the bites dough:

1. In your food processor pulse the bread to fine grain.
2. Combine starch and water, stir until there is no lumps.
3. Add the water to the bread and knead with your hand to form sort of dough.

Make the stuffing:

1. Heat olive oil in a non stick pan, add the sausage crumble and brown for almost 4-5 minutes.
2. Add the spinach, parsley, salt and pepper and cook for another minutes.
3. Turn off the heat and let it cool for 15 minutes then add the cream cheese and the parmesan cheese, stir to combine.
4. Take a small portion of the dough, fill with about two teaspoons of the filling, close and roll to shape into a ball. *

5. Pop the balls in the freezer for 30-45 minutes until it holds its shape.**

6. Heat oil over medium-low, dip the balls in the beaten egg then cover completely with the breadcrumbs and fry.
7. Let it cool a bit after frying and enjoy with some pizza sauce.

Recipe Notes

* I made 24 balls out of the dough. Also I filled mine with almost 1 Tablespoon of the filling as I like it fully loaded and in some of the balls I added more mozzarella cheese.

** This step is optional but it is recommended if you are using a lot of cheese inside.

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