Lamb and Veal Meatballs with Feta, Pine Nuts, and dried Apricots.

Note: Anyone else posting this photo might have photo-shopped out the fat on the foil around these meatballs. I could have arranged them on a plate and posted that. But I have chosen to present them, lipids and all. Let it comfort you, if you fear fat, that the fat here has left the meatball. It cannot hurt you. You will throw it away.



In the first 50 years of my life I had but one chance to eat lamb. I turned it down. I was a nursing student, in line at the Mary Hitchcock Hospital cafeteria, searching for supper. The lamb was gray and greasy, with a glob of green jelly offered up as a condiment.

Later in life, as I studied cookbooks from the Mediterranean and the Middle East, I let go of my prejudice. Given a choice now between lamb and beef I choose lamb. I choose leg of lamb, lamb chops, shoulder cuts (very cheap), and ground.

I rarely talk to anyone else who eats lamb. Middle Tennessee believes that Man's best friend is the pig, followed closely by the steer. One can find lamb at the better groceries, but the farther out into the provinces one goes the less chance one has to buy even a lamb chop.

Our disdain for lamb is not global, for sheep may safely graze where cattle would starve or wander off a cliff. That means mountains and arid places everywhere- from the Sudan to Iceland to Turkey to the barren islands of Greece. This gives steady employment as well to shepherds and sheepdogs who in the words of Daniel W Glade in his chapter on sheep in The Cambridge World History of Food states:

"Shepherds and dogs remain indispensable, for they protect their defenseless charges not only from predators but also from the sheep's own mimetic behavior and innate stupidity."

Sheep may be dim-witted, but that is neither here nor there for our purpose, which is to make a delicious meatball from ground lamb, with veal included for contrast. I also added pine nuts, which many lamb meatball recipes call for. More unusual are the chopped dried apricots, the panko crumbs, and the Feta cheese. I confess I did not sauce this dish. If I had ,I planned to invent something with pomegranate molasses, yogurt, and honey. This will be a future project. Here is my recipe-


1 pound ground lamb

1 pound ground veal

1 cup panko crumbs(or breadcrumbs)



1 cup crumbled feta cheese


1 medium yellow onion, diced

1-2 teaspoons sea salt

olive oil to saute onion- 1-2 tablespoons

3 cloves garlic- minced or put through a garlic press.(Julia Child was not too good to use a garlic press.)

2 eggs

3-4 tablespoons pine nuts

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1-2 teaspoons sea salt.

1/2 to 3/4 cup diced dried apricots.


Saute the diced yellow onion in the olive oil until it is soft and golden.

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. It will be mushy work but you must knead the meat as though you were making bread to spread the ingredients evenly. When you have accomplished this ,you are ready to shape your mixture into meatballs. I chose to make the three inches wide. Then line them up in a foil lined baking dish of good size- 9 by 12 or 9 by 15 would work. Bake them in a 375 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes. As always , be attentive to keep them from over-roasting. This recipe would feed at least six. I, being but one ,will freeze my extras.

Roasted, thinly sliced potatoes, coated with olive oil, dusted with sea salt and layered with rosemary, diced garlic, and diced pancetta go well with this!