Geek Bites: These Meatballs Are The Bob-omb!

Mario is an icon in the geek/nerd universe, but what about all his enemies? Those poor guys don’t get much credit. So what better way to show our appreciation for a Super Mario character than with an Italian meal? So today we’re making Bob-omb meatballs!

To make your meatballs look like a Bob-omb you will need:

• Toothpicks (optional)
• Little orange tomatoes or grape/cherry tomatoes if you can’t find orange
• Pasta sauce
• Parmesan shaker cheese
• Any type of block cheese
• Dried thin pasta (spaghetti, angel hair, etc.)

 
You can buy pre-made meatballs if you’d like, but then you wouldn’t be putting much effort in, and they probably wouldn’t be big enough anyway. I recommend making cheese stuffed meatballs so they “explode” with flavor! Everybody likes making their meatballs differently so I won’t give you a full recipe, but here’s a list of the ingredients I use:

• Ground beef
• Seasoned Italian bread crumbs
• Ketchup
• Eggs
• Oregano
• Salt
• Pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a pan with foil. Mix all your ingredients by hand and roll meatballs that are a little bigger than a golf ball and place them in the pan. I usually cook my meatballs in pasta sauce on the stove, but for this recipe I did them in the oven to keep them dry, you’ll see why later. Bake these for about 30 minutes.

Once the meatballs are done cooking let them sit for a few minutes so you don’t burn yourself. Slice your tomatoes into halves and use toothpick (or a piece of your dried pasta) to attach the feet underneath. This step is optional because you can always just place the meatball on top of the tomato before serving.

Now take some of your pasta sauce and put a couple little drops where the eyes would go. Put a little bit of your shaker cheese into the palm of your hand and dip the spots of sauce into it. Next cut a small piece of your block cheese for the fuse holder. This is usually round but I just cut a square to be lazy. Lastly, take a small piece of your dried pasta and stick it through the cheese. In the picture you’ll see I originally used cooked pasta but I realized I could do something even better.

And here is my final result with a pasta hill! I even hand drew the background for this.

I’d love to see yours, so take a photo and put a link to it in the comments below. My son recognized the character but he asked where the “twisty thing” on the back was, so if you can fashion a key I’d like to see it. I’d also like to get more ideas for upcoming recipes, so leave a comment with those as well.

Shannon is a photographer, mother, and writer for One-Quest.com You can Email Shannon or follow Shannon on Twitter @muffinpie03 or Facebook

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