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A place for us to share our favorite recipes of wonderful foods cooking with mostly fresh ingredients.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Italian Hamburgers

When I was growing up (in a Sicilian household), we NEVER ate 'normal' hamburgers. We never had plain grilled ground beef patties that sat on a soft bun, topped with melted cheese, ketchup, onions on a plate in front of us.... but we DID eat hamburgers. They were just different than the typical American burgers found at McDonald's or SmashBurger's or Meatheads or Wendy's. It's possible I didn't eat a Normal Burger until I was 8 or 10 years old and when I did, it seemed so tasteless. So lackluster! My family's version is more of a meatball that's shaped into a patty and then either fried in olive oil or baked in an oven. My kinda burger!!





This should make approx. 8 burgers.   Start out with 2# ground round or ground sirloin. 
Add these ingredients and mix together THOROUGHLY:
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (dried is ok, but add 1/4 cup milk to them & stir to soften) - you can also soften 2 slices Italian bread in 1/4 cup (or a little more) milk, mashing it occasionally until mushy   
1/2 cup finely minced onion
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely minced/smashed
1 large egg
few Tblsp. minced parsley
1/4-1/2 cup grated parmesan (depends on how cheese you like it!)
season liberally with salt and pepper

After everything is totally mixed together, divide the meat up (for equal sized burgers) and form into patties.

At this point I will put the burgers onto a lightly greased baking sheet, put it into a preheated 350ยบ oven and bake them until the meat is cooked, approx. 25-30 minutes, or until they're nice and browned.
OR
Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a large frying pan and when the oil is hot, add the burgers.  Cook them for 3-5 minutes - check to make sure they're browned, then turn them over and cook them on the other side until they're done.

If you're aiming to cook healthy - bake the burgers instead of frying them. Use ground sirloin (less fat than chuck) - use the egg WHITE only (& eliminate the yolk) - use lowfat milk/cheese.

Remove the burgers from the pan, place on a rack to drain any residual oil. Enjoy!






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