My childhood best friend, Kearci, and I tend to share brainwaves even though we live more than 2,000 miles apart. Our recent annual Christmas gift exchange is just one example of our shared consciousness, since we each gave the other a copy of our most trustworthy cookbook. Kearci gave me nothing fancy by Alison Roman, and I gifted her with Dinner by Melissa Clark (we love our NYT authors). Delighted, we sat together on her apartment porch and flipped through the books for well over an hour, pointing out our favorite recipes as we ooo’ed and ahh’ed over the gorgeous food pictures. I flipped to “Spicy Pork Meatballs” and read the name out loud. Kearci snapped her head up and without hesitation told me that this recipe “will change your life.” I’ll grant that we tend to use some hyperbole when we’re together… We discovered in middle school that overtly dramatic conversations were a perfect way to make each other laugh. But Kearci is also someone who feels things strongly, so I knew to take her seriously.
Good thing I did. I’ve always been a fan of meatballs. Sadly and gladly, these ones may have single-handedly ruined all others for me. Because it’s not just the meatballs that get you, it’s the broth they float in.
Let’s start with the meatballs themselves. Alison suggests using pork, turkey, beef, lamb, or a combination. I chose pork and turkey because I wanted a less fatty meat to balance out my pork. I think the combo worked fine, but turkey never has as much flavor as I want it to. Next time I’ll try a pork and beef pairing. To assemble the meatballs, the meat is mixed with garlic, fresh herbs (chives, parsley, I threw in some thyme I had on hand), dried spices (fennel seeds, paprika, pepper flakes), and yogurt. This was my first time adding yogurt to meatballs -- I’m used to eggs or ricotta as the binding agent. The yogurt worked surprisingly well.
Once mixed, it’s time to form those balls o’ meat, into a 1½” diameter, or as Alison puts it, “about the size of a plum.” If you’re like me and you have a hard time approximating sizes or picturing how big a plum should be, I suggest taking out a ruler for reference. Why? Because these meatballs will fall apart if they’re too large. I say this from experience. At least half of my meatballs lost their ball-shape during browning, and I believe one reason was that they were too large, and therefore not compact enough. Learn from my mistake.
Note to self: make those meatballs smaller than you think they should be. And yes, I write in my cookbooks like a journal.
Once your on-the-smaller-side meatballs are formed, it’s time to brown them in a pot filled with a layer of olive oil. I made another mistake at this step -- I let the pot get too hot. The oil gets really excited after sitting in the same pot over strong heat for 20 minutes of browning, and by the last few meatballs, it browns the outside quickly without leaving enough time for the inside temperature of the meatball to rise. This is where half my meatballs fell apart. So while I recommend turning the stove to medium-high heat at the start, per Alison’s instructions, I’d say that after that first round of meatballs have finished browning, turn down the heat as necessary so the oil doesn’t get too piping. And beware of some oil splatters - I wore long oven mitts as protection.
Another reason why these meatballs ruined other ones: In the past, I’ve been told to bake my meatballs in the oven. While a less messy and perhaps easier method, baking, I now realize, doesn’t help the meat reach its full potential. Baking means the meatballs remain soft and spongey (especially if you’re using ground turkey). The fat tends to become liquid and oozes out of the meat. Browning keeps the fat in and turns it into a charred, salty meatball exterior, offering up more flavor and aesthetic appeal. So yes, browning is worth your time, and yes, the mess too.
While the first half of this recipe didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped, the second half was much more seamless, and made up for some of my early mistakes.
In the same pot that you browned the meatballs, add shallot and garlic and saute until lightly browned. Then cherry tomatoes are added and cooked till bursting. Finally, water and vinegar complete the broth ensemble. Don’t forget to scrape up any bits of fat and crumbled meat that were left on the bottom of the pot. Simmer the sauce for a few minutes and add the browned meatballs back in. Any inner raw parts left in the meatballs will be taken care of as they finish cooking in the simmering sauce. The flavors should all be best friends by now, and can invite a few more over for the party, mainly mint, pepper flakes, and more fennel seeds. I added some shaved parmesan as well and served with fresh sourdough for soaking in the broth.
Kearci strongly recommends saving these meatball leftovers and eating them in a sandwich/sub form. You can even dip your meatball sandwich into the broth like an au jus!
5 recipes cooked, 220 recipes to go.
