Herby cottage cheese meatballs

The first of a month of wholesome, easy recipes

Hello! Welcome back! Skip all the rambling and scroll right to the bottom of this post for a printer-friendly PDF of the recipe only.

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Hello, friends. It seems that Saturday Table has become Sunday Table because, try as I might, I just can’t seem to get this newsletter out before Sunday. I seem to always be filming and photographing the recipes at the last minute and writing it in the final hour, quickly giving everything a once-over and pressing “send post now” instead of “schedule for later,” which for some reason feels very… reckless. No time to go back and fix typos, no time to remove any incoherent thoughts or run-on sentences.

All that to say that I’m short on time, and I know a lot of you are, too. Which is why I’ve decided that January will be the month of simple, wholesome, delicious dinners. Things that are short on time and long on flavor, with lots of staying power — AKA, you can make a big batch and eat them for a few meals. I’m calling it Weeknights Done Right, and I plan to keep it going for much longer than just this month because I know I’m always looking for quick, non-boring weeknight meals.

I’m not one for resolutions and I’m definitely not the newsletter you should be coming to for anything related in any way to a diet, but I think many of us are craving fresher, feel-good fare right now. I won’t call it healthy because we all have different definitions of that, but I’ll say that these recipes will be full of things that make me personally feel good, and I hope you’ll feel the same.

Tell me more

We’re starting with today’s recipe, a big batch of meatballs that are probably the best I’ve ever made and can be eaten any number of ways.

We’re definitely a meatballs household. I like to make a lot at once and use them throughout the week. Either as the main protein with a side or two, in a sauce with a salad and some bread on the side, on top of pasta — you name it.

This particular version came about when I had ground beef and cottage cheese and didn’t want to feel like I was eating ground beef and cottage cheese. I added a few things I always have on hand, like parmesan and onions and lots o’ herbs, and was left with a meatball everyone loved and wanted more of — even my very picky 3-year-old, which is certainly saying a lot.

The beef makes them hearty, the cottage cheese adds in an extra dose of protein and makes them quite juicy, and the herbs give them sooooo much flavor. Denis loved them so much that he’s even been eating them for breakfast. Like, is that not the ringing endorsement you need?

Before we start

• This recipe makes about 40 meatballs, give or take depending on how big you make them.

• I think there are two keys to a good meatball, the first of which is onions. Onions are natural meat tenderizers (something about the enzymes). I think they’re the most powerful when blitzed up in a blender or food processor, which is convenient because it’s a hell of a lot faster than chopping. If you don’t have a blender or food processor, you can hand grate them or chop as finely as you can — big pieces of onion could make your meatballs fall apart.

• The second key is how you shape them. I used to end up with dense, tough meatballs because I wanted them to be so perfectly round that I would roll and roll them until they were too compact. Now I just lightly roll them into a rough spherical shape, and end up with fluffy, light balls every time.

• There are a lot of herbs in this recipe. Like, a lot. But they get chopped down very small, and give the meatballs so much flavor. You can really use any tender herbs that you like — I went with a combo of parsley, cilantro, dill, and a little basil.

• In the photos here, I show the meatballs in a tomato sauce. You can use the jarred stuff for ultimate weeknight ease. My recipe for a quick tomato sauce is here.

• These are great for the freezer. You can freeze them either cooked or uncooked for up to two months. If going the uncooked route, I’d recommend freezing them on a plate/baking sheet before transferring to a big freezer baggie to prevent them from sticking together.

  

The recipe

Makes: 40 meatballs

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes