Did you know that Sam’s Club is now carrying beautiful, creamy, yummy and stinky cheese?  Why, YES, they certainly are.  And do you know what else?  I LOVE CHEESE!

I think Bleu, Asiago, and Gorgonzola are my favorite “gourmet” varieties but on a day when I need a quick snack, I often reach for my kids’ favorite: string cheese (which we all know is just mozzarella!).

Sam’s Club is really excited  be bringing these gourmet cheeses from around the world into the club.  To celebrate with it’s members, Sam’s Club is launching a a very cool Facebook App that is all about cheese and you can enter there to WIN a TRIP TO FRANCE!  The app will take you on a cheese journey around the world where you can learn about different cheese and wine pairings as well as other fun stuff.  And if you are a cheese lover like me, then you’ll want to check it out.

I was really excited to get a sampling of the new cheeses to try out with my family.  It was so hard to narrow down a single cheese recipe to share with you, but falling back to my Italian roots, I picked an Italian meatball recipe using Grana Padano which is very similar to Parmesan.  In fact, it’s so similar that I added some fresh Parmesan to my recipe since I didn’t quite have enough Grana Padano.

Meatballs with Grana Padano  Cheese

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups grated Grana Padano or Parmigiana Reggiano (parmesan)
• generous handful of bread crumbs (purchased “canned” bread crumbs) soaked in milk for 5 minutes and squeezed dry.  If you start rolling your meatballs and they seem too “loose” then add some more breadcrumbs to the mixture).
• salt & pepper to taste
• olive oil
• oil or unsweetened butter
• small bunch of minced parsley (optional – I did not use this, instead I used some dried Italian Seasoning)

To make a large batch of meatballs for my boys, I doubled this recipe.

I grated my cheese using my Ninja Master Prep.  Grana Padana is a hard cheese, so it crumbles easy in a food processor or blender.

Combine meat with the eggs, cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley(or Italian Seasoning), salt and pepper.  Add just enough olive oil to make mixture soft (I omitted the olive oil).

Shape into meatballs.  Now the original recipe says to roll the meatballs in a beaten egg and then roll them into more breadcrumbs, but I didn’t do this either.  Just want to mention it in case you feel you want to add this step.

Brown your meatballs in heated oil/butter until nicely browned on the outside and cooked through to the center.

All the cheese in the meatballs started cooking and it just smells amazing!

Serve over pasta.  Or eat alone because these are that good.  I served a traditional red sauce with dinner this night, but an alfredo would probably be good, too.  We had a bunch of meatballs left over and they were good warmed up the next day.

ALL the boys liked their Grana Padana Meatballs.  YAY!

So if you are looking to experiment with some new cheeses, or just have a hard to find favorite, go visit your local Sam’s Club and check out their new cheeses.  I was really impressed with their selection.  Also, visit their Fall Harvest website to learn more about cheese and explore other fun fall decorating and entertaining ideas.

Oh yeah, don’t forget the Facebook App where you can WIN A TRIP TO PARIS!

Did I mention that already?

Just checking.

Recipe adapted from About.com

Sam’s Club provided my family with a variety of cheese in order to share a fun new recipe with you.  They also provided compensation for my time in creating this post.  My opinions always remain my own.