What Is It With Meatballs?

What is it about Meatballs?  ©

Let's start with the basics.  What is a meatball?

A meatball is made from an amount of ground meat rolled into a small ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as breadcrumbs, minced onion, spices, and possibly eggs. Meatballs are usually prepared and rolled by hand, and are cooked by frying, baking, steaming, or braising in sauce.

Meatballs are an old food.  The ancient Roman cookbook Apicius included many meatball-type recipes. Every cuisine contains meatballs, from the Afghans to the Vietnamese.  Most everyone likes meatballs. 

The word  "meatball" has even entered the language as slang.  In slang, unlike cuisine, meatballs get no respect.  Meatball" is an insult for a stupid, clumsy or dull person. Meatball is also a slur for a woman who is short and stout.  The Urban Dictionary has page after page of references to "Meatball," most of which I could not read aloud in public. 

Meatballs have invaded the movies, too.  "Meatballs" was a 1979 film; the first time Bill Murray had a starring roll.  A recent kids movie I saw with my granddaughter is  "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs."  

The folksinger Josh White wrote a famous song called, "One Meat Ball."  It's about being poor, hungry, and ashamed.    Another song kids sing is:  On top of spaghetti, which is really about a meatball. 

What is it about meatballs? 

My first memory of meatballs was as a ten-year-old living in Lakewood, Colorado.  One day, out of the blue my mom, who hadn't an Italian bone in her body, made spaghetti and meatballs.  I thought this was the tastiest food I had ever eaten.  For years I begged her to make this dish again, but she seldom did.  It was probably too much work.  No canned sauce in those days.  Certainly no frozen or prepared meatballs.  Everything from scratch.  My mom preferred to make fancy desserts.

On my first trip to Italy, I learned spaghetti and meatballs weren't on the menu, at least not together.  I also learned pasta was eaten before the main course.  The combination of spaghetti and meatballs is actually Italian-American, served in so-called red sauce restaurants. 

Craving meatballs, I always sought out restaurants that served red sauce food. Once my husband and I and our two little boys were in Denver.  I had always heard of a good Italian restaurant there, Smaldones, reputed to be owned by the Denver mob.  We looked up the address in the phone book and drove over. Looked like a bar.  Walked in anyway.  Everyone in the place turned and looked at us.  We were obviously "foreigners."  That didn't stop the help from being exceptionally nice to our kids and us, too. We sat in a booth.  They brought a high chair for the youngest kid.  The pasta was excellent. Good Chianti. Tasty succulent meatballs.  Cheap, too.  We congratulated ourselves for being adventurous. The Smaldones are long gone, but the restaurant is still in business.

Another memorable meatball experience took place in Kendall Square.  When I began working there, the Red Line T stop was a gaping hole in the ground, and the Marriott was under construction.  A lot of cheap restaurants served MIT students and us working stiffs--the F & T Diner where the steelworkers drank Boilermakers on Friday, Alexander' s Cafeteria where the keypunch operators ate.  Remember Key Punch?  I thought not.  Where I liked to go was Vinnie's sub shop.  Meatball subs! Nirvana.  A nice Italian roll with three golf-ball sized meatballs smothered in marinara sauce with a generous topping of cheese.  Vinnie's was a typical place takeout with gruff men at the counter.  Once someone asked for mustard on his meatball sandwich.  Vinnie himself refused the request, "I'm not puttin no mustard on meatballs."  Bravo, Vinnie. 

My kids loved spaghetti and meatballs, too, and I made this more often than my mom, but not regularly.   Then I discovered the world's best meatball recipe, Sicilian meatballs.  The ingredients are simple, and everything is fresh:  parsley, garlic, grated cheese.  

Swedish meatballs are also renowned.  If you visit the IKEA cafeteria, you can eat tasty inexpensive Swedish meatballs.  Don't miss the ligonberry sauce.   I have a handout for Swedish meatball recipes, too.

Sometimes I prepare a Mexican soup called "Abondigas."   Guess what?  It has meatballs Pick up a recipe for that, too.  If you have it, use fresh mint instead of cilantro.  Albóndigas are thought to have originated as a Berber or Arab dish imported to Spain during the period of Muslim rule. Spanish albóndigas can be served as an appetizer or main course, often in a tomato sauce, while Mexican albóndigas are usually served in soup with a light broth and vegetables. 

Did you know there are even vegetarian meatballs?  A misnomer, to be sure.  Maybe we should call then food balls. I made some and brought them along today. 

So, what is it about meatballs? 

What's not to like? They're tasty, cheap, not too hard to make. When you eat meatballs, you're eating culture and history, too, not just food.
Grab a recipe or two and whip up a batch.  Your kids will love you. Let them help.  You can even make tiny meatballs and put them on pizza.  Now there's a thought.  Food for thought.

Fellow Toastmasters, I hope I've given you some insight into meatballs.