Reading · 40 Ingredients Forever

I tried counting how many meatball recipes I’ve developed, and then I lost count. Or rather, I got so embarrassed I stopped counting. That’s because there are many ways to play ball: change how you cook them, what you eat them with, and what seems to be my preference, what you can put in them.

Making a meatball with a panade (a combination of starch, like breadcrumbs, and liquid, like milk) is meant to retain moisture for tenderness. It works unless it doesn’t. If the ratio’s off, the meatballs will end up dense, dull, or both. And besides, you don’t have to do all that, as meatballs throughout the Middle East and Asia show.

There are also plenty of other ways to introduce moisture, including sauces, dairy, and juicy vegetables. The texture will be meatier, like a burger patty, but the flavor will be crisper, clearer, undiluted by as much starch and fat.

Today’s meatballs have a whopping 1 1/2 cups of chopped mint, an idea so wild I never would’ve tried it if the food writer Tammie Teclemariam hadn’t first. Mint can be intense, and so much of it seems unwise, but as the mint steams in the meatballs, it lets off a tingly cooling quality that’s pretty cool with the richness of ground meat (lamb and beef both work).

And if that’s not your ball game, here are seven other recipes that all roll with much more than breadcrumbs.

Filled with: Feta brine & shallot