Zombie Eyes (Halloween Meatballs)

Directions

1. Fill a large pot with water, add a pinch of salt, and bring it to a rolling boil. Add the spaghetti and cook for roughly 12 minutes, giving it a stir now and then, until it reaches a firm texture. Drain the pasta and set it aside.
2. Set your oven to 400°F (200°C) to get it ready for baking.
3. In a large bowl, combine the Parmesan cheese, panko bread crumbs, egg, minced garlic, parsley flakes, dried basil, and dried oregano. Add the ground beef and mix thoroughly by hand until everything is well incorporated. Divide the mixture into 16 equal portions and roll them into meatballs.
4. Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place the meatballs in the pan and cook for 3 minutes on each side until they are browned. Use tongs to move the browned meatballs onto a baking sheet.
5. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven and bake the meatballs for 8 minutes.
6. While the meatballs are baking, prepare the eyes. Use a plastic straw to cut out a small circle from the center of each olive half. Then, use the same straw to poke a hole through the middle of each string cheese slice. Push the olive circles into the holes in the cheese slices to form the eyes.
7. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and let the meatballs cool until they are safe to touch.
8. To assemble the dish, wrap a few strands of cooked spaghetti around the tines of each of the 16 forks. Push a meatball onto the end of each fork and arrange them on a platter. Place a small dollop of spaghetti sauce on each meatball where the eye will go. Press the olive-cheese eye onto the sauce. Finally, drizzle the remaining sauce over the spaghetti wrapped around the forks.