The Only Lamb Meatball Recipe You’ll Ever Need

This lamb meatball recipe is full of unexpected flavor, using feta cheese and lemon to put a Mediterranean spin on things that will make you want to keep your freezer stocked with ground lamb so you can make this all the time.

Lamb Meatballs
Serves: 6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: I 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Meatballs

• 2 pounds ground lamb
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• ½ cup (4oz) sheeps milk feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• 4 garlic cloves (minced with a fine microplane)
• 3 tbs parsley, chopped
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• Zest of one lemon (using a fine microplane)
• 3 tbs water

Tomato Sauce

• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• ½-1 cup red wine
• 2 24 oz jars of marinara
• 1 tbs dried oregano
• Zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ⅓ cup kalamata olives, diced
• 2 tbs parsley (plus another 2 tbs for garnish)
• Juice of one lemon
• ½ cup (4oz) sheeps milk feta cheese, crumbled

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix all of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl. You can use your bare hands or a fork for this, and set aside while you make the sauce.
2. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter in a large dutch oven or skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook until they begin to soften and stick a little to the pan, about 5 minutes.
3. Deglaze the pan by adding wine and scrape up all the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.
4. Once most of the wine has cooked away, add tomato sauce, oregano, lemon zest, salt, pepper flakes, olives, and parsley.
5. Bring mixture to a low simmer and begin to form your meatballs.
6. Form your meatballs and add to the pan as you go – see my note below on the best tips to make this quick and easy. Add meatballs to the pan.
7. Cover with a lid and cook at the lowest simmer possible for 25 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through.
8. Once cooked through, skim most of the oil off of the top of the sauce with a ladle and discard.
9. Serve: Squeeze about a quarter of a lemon over each bowl of meatballs, and garnish with olives, feta, and parsley.
10. I like to serve this over pasta or orzo (or even zucchini noodles or arugula if you’re unfortunately off the carbs!)

NOTES

• Panko breadcrumbs are great for this recipe, but any breadcrumbs will do just fine.
• I am a huge lover of sheep or goat milk feta, and an absolute hater of cows milk feta. Feta is by definition “a white Greek cheese made from sheep’s or goat’s milk and cured in salt water,” and anything else is a weak imitation and should be shunned. Sheep or goats milk feta is soft, creamy, and rich, in contrast with cows milk feta which is firm, rubbery, and flavorless.
• A note on red pepper flakes, if you can take a little heat I highly recommend going for it in this dish and adding more to taste. The red pepper brings out the zip from the lemon and the salt from the cheese.
• Same goes for lemon zest and/or the lemon juice. More is a good thing here.
• A note on forming meatballs
  • Use one wet hand (keep a small bowl of water nearby) and cookie scoop.
  • I use a 1.5 tbs cookie scoop and scoop a big heaping meatball probably about 2 inches across that i then form softly into my wet hand, and then drop directly into the sauce. Don’t worry about overcrowding the pan as long as there is enough sauce to cover everything.