Meatballs baked with Brussels sprouts

Start preheating the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Clean the Brussels sprouts by removing any unsightly outer leaves, but otherwise leave them whole, do not halve them.

Mix the meat with the egg, breadcrumbs, and very finely chopped bacon. Salt as needed; some ground meats are already sold salted and can easily be over-salted during preparation at home. Finally, work in 50 ml of very cold water and mix briefly. (Note: if you are unsure about the correct seasoning of the meat, make a small ball or patty and fry it in a pan or cook it in the microwave at half power. Only then can you taste the cooked ground meat and adjust the flavor based on this test.)

Grease a baking dish with oil. With wet hands, form the meat mixture into balls the size of ping-pong balls and arrange them in the baking dish (with small gaps). Add the Brussels sprouts to the remaining empty space and brush everything with oil.