In a large mixing bowl, add ingredients from ground meat to pepper. Use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix/combine them well. The filling will seem loose as there are no eggs.
Line a baking sheet pan with parchment, use a cookie scoop to scoop out 15-16 meatballs. Grease your hands with ½ tbsp olive oil - this will help bind the meat together and also prevent it from sticking to your hands - and form them into mini patties, about ½-inch (1.27 cm) thick per patty.
To pan fry, preheat a large frying skillet until it feels warm when placing your palm near the surface, about 2-3 inches (5-7cm) away. Add 1.5 tbsp oil, swirl it around the pan. Cook the patties in separate batches. Try not to over crowd the skillet. Fry the first side over medium heat about 3 minutes and the flip side for another 3 minutes or until cooked through. Add more oil, if need be.
My cookie scoop is a medium size about 3 tbsp per scoop.
You can test the salt level by pan frying a small bite before forming into patties. I use 0.5 tsp salt because prosciutto is quite salty. If you aren’t adding prosciutto, I would adjust the salt quantity to 0.75 tsp.
If you can’t have or can’t find certain ingredients, please scroll up the post to see detailed swap suggestions under “Recipe variations”.
If you want to make-ahead and/or freeze it for later, please scroll up the post to see detailed recommendations under “how to cook the patties”.