One of the greatest meze on the Greek table, keftethes (meatballs) are presented in a number of ways in Greek cuisine. Whether or not they are deep fried and plated up as is, braised in a rich tomato sauce or floating above avgolemono (egg and lemon sauce), meatballs are transformed into a versatile dish in the Greek culinary world. But with a cooking heritage firmly planted in Italian cuisine (called polpotte), and a reputation for being a cheap and cheerful Swedish delicacy thanks to Ikea, many people have disassociated the humble meatball as a Greek food. But meatballs are one of those foods that appears in a nearly every cuisine – the Middle Eastern kofta, an Indian meatball curry, Vietnamese bahn mi; albondingas served in a tapas bar in Spain, Polish golabki; you name the country and I bet you will find a meatball dish.
Due to this multicultural history, it’s hard to tell where the first ever meatball originated. However, there are recipes for meatballs from the time of the Romans. In the recipe book Cuisine in Ten Books, written by Marcus Gavius Apicus in 25 AD, there is a section of the book dedicated to ‘minces’ and ‘mixtures of meat and other ingredients’. He even rates the meat that you can possibly use to create the meatballs with peacock meat in first place as it’s the tenderest; and pheasant in second; followed by rabbit, chicken and suckling pig.
Because meat was so precious in the ancient times, and only served to the rich, every piece of the meat needed to be used. So grinding and mincing all the different bits of meat together and mixing it with herbs and spices, gave the least popular cuts of meat a new lease on life. They were created as a great way to deal with the leftovers of the meat.
And still to this day, meatballs are a great economic way to incorporate meat into the diet without paying a hefty price. To buy, mince is a cheaper meat as its different cuts of meat, and some fat, tenderised through the mincing process. To create an even more economic option for your family, experiment with different minces and mixing them together. For example, chicken mince and pork mince is cheaper than beef or lamb mince. It pays health wise and flavour wise to get the premium mince than the cheaper supermarket alternative that can laden with hidden fats.
Because you can create a large volume of meatballs using a kilogram of mince, they become a great way to feed a family also. And they are the perfect food to create with children who love to get their hands dirty and roll the little balls up. And given that the meatball is really dependant in flavour on what you add in, they are a great way to use up any leftovers in the fridge. The selection of a herb, say basil or mint, can transform a meatball from an Italian dish to a Middle Eastern dish; a change of meat used from lamb to pork can transform your meatball dish from a Lebanese kofta to a Vietnamese bahn mi.
So, with all that, what makes a Greek meatball unique to the cuisine? It’s the herbs and spices used, and also the addition of cheese. Greek meatballs are made up of these simple ingredients – lamb mince, oregano, feta, mint, onion, egg, breadcrumbs and garlic. Any addition of other ingredients will depend entirely on what region of Greece you live in. And what size you make the meatball will depend on its purpose. If you intend on just using them for a simple snack, then the tinier the better, and the less ingredients even more so. But this simple recipe for keftethes can be modified or added to. You can add in grated carrot to make the meatball even tenderer or use fresh dill instead of mint; add in parsley; add in wine or ouzo; add in whatever you like. The world is literally your oyster but the fundamentals need to be the same for Greek keftethes.
As said above, there are variations on the meatball in Greek cooking. In Cyprus, sheftalies are a delicacy. They are longer, fatter meatballs wrapped in caul fat created using a mixture of lamb and pork mince and are jam-packed with flavour by using cinnamon, mint and thinly chopped parsley. Wrapped in pita bread with salad, this makes the perfect Cypriot lunch. In the mainland of Greece, it is common to flatten the meatball (using the same recipe above) so it forms more of a round patty called biftekia. This is normally done when meatballs are used for a family dinner and due to size, can create more of a hamburger feel then the meze style of eating with the keftethes. A way to really set these apart is to stuff the bifteki with cheese – either kasseri, feta or kefalograviera and cook so the cheese melts creating another flavour layer to your dish. Braising meatballs in a rich kokkinisto (red tomato sauce) is a great way to keep your keftethes tender as they soak up the flavour of the sauce itself. It’s also a healthier alternative to deep frying them in oil. Similar to Italian meatballs served with pasta, keftethes done this way can be served with crunchy bread; potatoes – either braised with the dish or mashed; or a Greek pasta such as hilopites and again a simple yet economical dish fit for the whole family.