The Meatball Shop’s Spicy Pork Meatballs with Parmesan Cream Sauce

Communal Tables at The Meatball Shop

The meatball may be the world’s more ubiquitous food.  From Afghanistan to Viet Nam, meatballs exist in every possible guise. In Turkey alone, where they are called Kofte, there are 50 different versions of meatballs.  In Denmark, frikadeller are fried.  In Finland they’ve often made with ground reindeer meat.   In Germany, there’s a variation called Konigsberger Klopse which contain anchovy or herring and are eaten with caper sauce.  Indonesian meatballs are

The Meatball Shop’s version of today’s recipe

called bakso, served in a bowl like soup with noodles, tofu, egg, a meat dumpling and a crispy wanton.  Then we come to Italy, which most Americans associate most with meatballs–although Swedish Americans would object.  The Italian meatball is far more an Italian American dish.  In Italy, particularly in the Abruzzo, meatballs are called polpettine and they’re about the size of marbles.  The outsized meatball we know in Italian American cooking is yet another example of how Southern Italians adapted food from their home.  Their large size was a sign that in the new country food was far more plentiful than in Mother Italy. This brings us to Sweden, where kottbullar would be as familiar to American palates as any meatball: Ground beef or a mix of beef, pork and sometimes veal are mixed with breadcrumbs soaked in milk, finely chopped sautéed onions and served with a broth rich in cream.  (Now we’re getting close to the Meatball Shop’s version!)  Finally, in the United Kingdom, we arrive at a type of spicy pork meatball made from pig heart, liver and fatty pork belly or bacon: This is called a “faggot”.  This is the point where I say; enough about meatballs, on to the recipe.