Mozzarella-Stuffed Mini Meat Loaves

In bowl, mix bread crumbs with milk. Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in egg, 1 tsp herb seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Mix in ground beef just until combined and no streaks of bread crumb mixture are visible (do not overmix). Shape into 8 meatballs.

Cut mozzarella cheese into 8 cubes. Holding one ball in palm of hand, press opposite index finger into centre to create 1-inch well; place 1 cube of the mozzarella inside. Press meat over to enclose mozzarella and reshape meatball. Repeat with remaining meatballs and mozzarella.

Place 1 meatball into each of 8 wells of lightly greased muffin pan. Stir together bottled strained tomatoes (passata), tomato paste, brown sugar, cider vinegar, 1/2 tsp Italian herb seasoning, ¼ tsp each salt and pepper; spoon over meatballs.

Bake in 400°F oven until instant-read thermometer inserted in several meat loaves reads 160°F, about 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley.

Combining ground beef with moistened bread crumbs is a great way to keep the meat from drying out or shrinking while cooking.

Passata is a thick paste made from strained tomatoes and can be found in the pasta sauce section of the grocery store.