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

The Meatball Shop’s Spicy Pork Meatballs with Parmesan Cream Sauce
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“Meatball Mike” Chernow (left)  and
Chef Daniel Holzman
            Chef Daniel Holzman and his partner, Michael Chernow, AKA “Meatball Mike” are New York’s Kings of the Meatball.  With the opening of their 5th location, on the Far East side of Manhattan, at 1462 Second Avenue, they are the undisputed champs of the Meatball scene.  Their other locations are all downtown – in Chelsea, at 200 Ninth Avenue at 22nd Street, on the Lower East Side at 84 Stanton Street, and in the Village which has two locations:

170 Bedford just below Christopher St. and 64 Greenwich Avenue south of 7th Avenue South.  I had an errand to do which landed me practically outside their Greenwich Avenue door so I finally got to sample their beautiful balls.  I chose the Spicy Pork variation, a light and scrumptious meatball–or rather meatballs since an order consists of 5 the size of golf balls.  But what really knocked me out was the creamy Parmesan sauce that topped the dish. It was a complete indulgence of course and I have no clue what the fat content was nor do I care.  Life is meant to be lived, not calorie counted.  I’d made my foray into meatball territory alone so of course I wanted to make them for Andrew.  Or at least, that’s what I told myself. In truth, I could have eaten the whole batch of the things all by myself.  But then who doesn’t love a great meatball?


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.

 Click here to buy the book

Holzman and Chernow of The Meatball Shop have written a cookbook in honor of the meatball called, appropriately enough, “The Meatball Shop Cookbook” (Ballantine Books 2011) so finding the recipe for meatballs was a snap.  It’s very easy. I cut it in half.  So feel completely free to double this recipe for 8 servings. Their suggestion is to make them the size of golf balls but I went slightly larger, making a dozen and serving them three at a time. The other thing that differed from their recipe is that I found these meatballs to be far less dense than other meatballs I’ve made.  Whether it’s the addition of pickling juice or the bread soaked in milk, these meatballs are not hockey-puck solid. But follow the instructions and group them together in the baking dish and they will emerge much more solid than what you start out with.  This is the only time in memory when I’d wished I kept Wonder Bread in the house, instead I used just some crust less French bread.  The spice comes from cherry peppers and their ‘juice’.  But have no fear, they’re not blow-your-head-off spicy.  Then there’s the Parmesan Cream sauce. This I did a bit of improvisation to make, upping the amount of cheese.  It was essential to the enjoyment of the dish – even if it did hide the meatballs in a sea of white cream.  Here are the recipes:



4 thoughts on “The Meatball Shop’s Spicy Pork Meatballs with Parmesan Cream Sauce”

  • Thanks to you Lauren, I updated the recipe so that cooks won't be surprised at the texture of the meat as you make it into balls. They are, as you discovered, rather squishy. But if you put them into the pan meatball touching meatball, they'll emerge just the way you'll love them. I think the 'squishy' texture is why these meatballs are so tender. All best, Monte

  • Lol. I have long said the meatballs are the ultimate 'man' food. It's meat, it's bite sized, and for the non-cooking male, all you have to do for variety is change sauces. Meatballs always seem to be the first thing to disappear at parties. I definitely need to try these, plus I can think of a lot of things to do with that luscious Parmesan cream.

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