Sometimes failure can end up tasting pretty good. It certainly was the case with these meatballs.
I’d been aiming to create a solidly delicious, all-purpose meatball suitable for tossing with marinara over spaghetti. Except it didn’t quite work out that way. The meatballs, while certainly delicious, were both too tangy and too sweet to pair with your basic pasta sauce. And they certainly didn’t agree with the mandatory Parmesan that spaghetti calls for.
So I tried them in a curry sauce. Indian food is particularly welcoming to that play of sweet and heat, tangy and savory. But that wasn’t quite right, either.
I was resistant to changing the meatballs themselves. Because while they didn’t partner well with anything I’d tried, I still thought they were good. And they certainly were worth salvaging. Then it hit me. Embrace the tangy, sweet-and-savory side of these meatballs. Turn them into party food.
And so I ended up with these cocktail meatballs, perfect for setting out with toothpicks for a holiday gathering. And it turned out the sauce couldn’t have been simpler — tomatoes and cranberry sauce.
COCKTAIL MEATBALLS WITH CRANBERRY MARINARA
Start to finish: 30 minutes
Makes 50 meatballs
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno slices
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
3 pounds ground beef (93 percent lean)
14-ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
15-ounce can diced tomatoes
Splash of hot sauce
Nutrition information per meatball: 60 calories; 15 calories from fat (25 percent of total calories); 1.5 g fat (0.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 30 mg cholesterol; 4 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 2 g sugar; 6 g protein; 270 mg sodium.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.