Lamb Meatballs With Spiced Tomato Sauce
Here is a recipe from the Los Angeles chef Suzanne Goin that plays to children as well as to the most sophisticated of palates. It is for crisp lamb meatballs cooked through in a fragrant, vaguely North African sauce of tomato sauce zipped up with orange juice and warm spices, then topped with feta and mint. Ms. Goin first served the dish at one of her Los Angeles restaurants, and put it into ‘‘The A.O.C. Cookbook’’ (2013), devoted to that restaurant’s food. A version of the dish was later introduced to the menu of her children’s school. It can be cooked in an hour’s time, not all of it busy, and served with pita or plain pasta, bulgur or couscous. Featured in: Comfort Food Grows Up .
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion , peeled and finely diced
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 egg yolks , extra-large
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Pinch red-pepper flakes
- Pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 2 pounds ground lamb
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small sprig rosemary
- Red-pepper flakes to taste
- 1 medium onion , peeled and diced
- ½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- Pinch ground cinnamon
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon white sugar
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 1 3-inch strip of orange peel, pith removed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 4 ounces feta cheese , crumbled
- 2 tablespoons thinly sliced mint leaves
Preparation
Preheat broiler. In a large bowl,
mix together the onion, cream, egg yolks,
cinnamon, cumin, red pepper and
cayenne. Put the lamb in the bowl, and
season it aggressively with salt
and pepper. Add the bread crumbs and
parsley, and combine the mixture
well. Shape the meat into balls that are
a little larger than golf balls.
Grease a baking pan with olive
oil, and put the meatballs onto it, spaced
evenly. Place beneath the broiler,
and cook, turning once or twice, until
the meatballs are well browned,
approximately 5 to 7 minutes, then set
meatballs aside. Turn oven to 400.
Meanwhile, make the sauce. Pass
the tomatoes through a food mill, or
whizz them quickly in a food processor.
Heat a saucepan over medium-high
heat for a minute, then add olive oil,
rosemary and red pepper and
shake to combine. Cook for another
minute, then add onion, thyme,
cumin, cinnamon, cayenne and bay
leaf and sauté until the onions are
translucent, approximately 5 to 7 minutes.
Add tomatoes, sugar, orange juice
and peel, along with salt and pepper.
Cook for 8 to 10 minutes over
medium-low heat, until reduced by a
third. Adjust seasoning.
Pour the tomato sauce into a large
baking dish that you can put on the table.
Transfer the meatballs to the sauce,
putting them about ½ inch from each
other. Bake for 15 or 20 minutes,
until the sauce is bubbling and the
meatballs are cooked through.
Top with crumbled feta and
scattered mint.
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