At the end of a semester, it’s common for composition teachers to ask students to reflect on their learning. At my current institution, we do this as part of a final portfolio, where students bring together writing and other work from their semester, and write a narrative that discusses the learning represented by those pieces.
While I’m not required to assemble a portfolio at the end of each semester, as I read my students’ reflections, I often find myself reflecting too–all the more this month because it marks the end of my first year in this job. What have I written, and what have I learned? The answer to that question is far too much for a post on this blog, and at the same time, I’ve written less than I hoped– on this platform at least. But I’ve still been cooking.
In August, in the same week that I began this job, we also cooked a recipe that ushered in what I’ve been jokingly calling our meatball era. The recipe was unassuming enough: chicken meatballs with zucchini and feta. But like most assignments that teach you something, it was, for us, the ideal combination of something familiar and something new.
Of course, we’d made meatballs before. But we’d rarely, if ever, made them with ground chicken, and we’d certainly never added shredded zucchini and feta to the meatball mix. The idea that the zucchini could introduce moisture to a leaner meat felt revolutionary, like we’d cracked some previously unknown cooking code.
If this sounds hyperbolic, well, most teachers know that reflective writing assignments tend to prompt a bit of hyperbole. In all honesty, I don’t think we’ve made that zucchini meatball recipe more than once. But because of it, we went on to make many more meatballs – enough that, looking back on the year, calling this our meatball era feels a more well-earned name than I’d realized.
The first meatball recipe came at a perfect time, as we were learning our way around a new (and frankly pretty limited) set of local grocery stores, and building cooking routines that worked with our new jobs. Even in the most grim grocery store, you can find ingredients for a meatball. And because the meat is ground, the flavor spreads quickly (no need for marinating time). Because you cook the meat in small spheres, the cook time is quick too.
One of the advantages of leaning into our meatball era was that, whenever we were tired of our old go-tos, or needed one more recipe to round out the week, one of us would inevitably start looking for a new meatball iteration to try. Inadvertently, we also began to develop a better understanding of what makes a meatball work, and the many possibilities of the genre. It was a study in repetition and variation, and I honestly can’t think of another food that would lend itself to so much range.
We served meatballs over pasta, polenta, mashed potatoes, and rice. We put meatballs into soups, into salads, and parcelled them up in lettuce wraps. We made meatballs out of beef and pork, sure, but found ourselves more frequently turning to ground chicken and turkey, the low cost, lean meat canvas that could pick up an increasing range of flavor combinations we were now eager to try.
We worked our way through a range of ways to add moisture and body to meatballs. The classic Italian panade of breadcrumbs and milk got replaced with gluten free panko and cream, or pea protein breadcrumbs and stock. We added zucchini to meatballs, or minced mushrooms, or rolled oats. We tried different sizes, and different consistencies, and over time, I became more confident pushing the mix to the it’s wettest limit, the best way, I learned, to guarantee a tender center.
Sometimes we seared the meatballs stovetop, other times we oven baked them, and sometimes we combined the two techniques, always looking for ways to get crisp edges and keep the middle moist. After many evenings of raw meat gluing itself to my fingers, I learned to form meatballs with wet hands – keeping a bowl of water to dip my fingers in as I rolled them and arranged them on a sheet tray.
The biggest failure along the way was also the least adventurous meatball: a classic Italian one. Although I could have made one without any directions, by this point in the meatball journey, I was enjoying the way each recipe would teach me something new, and so I looked up a recipe to try. I don’t think the recipe was to blame. But I followed the recipe more than I followed my already developing meatball instincts, and there wasn’t nearly enough breadcrumb or moisture in the blend. And when I started searing them in our cast iron pan, our least reliable electric burner skyrocketed, and they started to burn. By that point, I was so frustrated that I even botched the tomato sauce–a dish I’ve made hundreds of times.
The most gratifying success came more recently, when we pulled a package of ground lamb from the freezer and didn’t use a recipe at all, relying only on the months of accumulated meatball knowledge, the lessons we’d learned from each previous recipe we’d tried. If this was a different sort of food blog, those lamb meatballs are the recipe I’d share with you. But I didn’t write it down, and even if I had, they probably wouldn’t turn out the same for you.
Instead, here’s a list of most of the meatball recipes we’ve made this year – a sort of syllabus for finding your way to your own more perfect meatball. It’s certainly not all the recipes – I’m sure I’ve lost track of some along the way. And I’ve probably got at least a few more meatballs in me–I’m writing this post on our way to Italy, which seems like the right place to go for some new meatball inspiration.
Meatball Era Recipes
Chicken Zucchini Meatballs with Feta: The recipe that began an era.
Chimichurri Meatballs: the chimichurri you make both goes into the meatball mix, and gets served alongside them–a trick that can be applied to other sauces too.
Pork and Porcini Meatballs: we loved the idea of mixing the mushrooms into the meatball, and subbed whatever mushrooms we could find locally. This recipe was also our reminder to try serving meatballs over polenta.
Marsala Chicken Meatballs: because these are a riff on an Italian dish, we served them over pasta (our go-to from TJ’s). We also put some finely chopped mushrooms into the meatballs–like the zucchini in the first recipe, the veggies add moisture to the mix.
Spicy Tahini Meatballs with Pita, cucumber, and avocado: this recipe uses a similar sauce strategy as the chimi meatballs, but it’s served as a salad that’s reminiscent of a fattoush. This was a context where gf pita worked just fine, because you toast it up, and then let the dressing soak in.
Albondigas with Mushrooms: a Spanish style meatball that we served with polenta. This was easily the most ambitious of all the recipes we tried, but the sauce was incredible. The meatballs get rolled in flour before frying, which was a new technique. (We used rice flour to keep it gf).
Thai Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup: lots of flavors we know we like, reinvented in meatball form!
Coq au Vin Blanc Meatballs: Served over polenta. We skipped the bacon and didn’t miss it–the recipe is plenty rich as is, and makes ground chicken feel luxurious. Put some minced mushroom in the meatballs if you’re into that.
Ssamjang Pork Meatballs: Meatballs as lettuce wraps is now my favorite way to eat meatballs. We subbed gochujang for ssamjang because we already had it in the fridge. Lots of flavor, and very easy to make.
Lemony Chicken Feta Meatball Soup: the citrus brings a lovely brightness to this soup, and the use of oats is a fun surprise. In the finished soup, the oats feel a bit like barley (but gluten free!)
Spiced Lamb Meatballs with yogurt and herbs: We’ve learned from Ottolenghi to love a yogurt sauce, and that’s what drew us to this dish. The real brilliance here was to sprinkle sumac over it all, an idea we used the next time we made lamb meatballs too.
Making Meatball Recipes Gluten Free
While most meatball recipes call for breadcrumbs, it’s an ingredient that’s easy to substitute. We used this gluten free panko frequently, and also sometimes relied on this pea protein breadcrumb that’s sold at Aldi. Most grocery stores (even in Hattiesburg) will have a gf breadcrumb that’s fine for meatball contexts.
More Meatball Education
This meatball episode of The Recipe with Kenji and Deb is worth working into your meatball journey.
Leave a Reply