Food52's Best Meatball Recipe Showdown: Vote For The Best Dish

For the past year, Food52.com readers have been voting in weekly showdowns of reader-submitted recipes on a given theme. The winning recipes of each week will end up in Food52's upcoming cookbook, along with bios of the people who submitted them (Food52 explains the process in simple detail here).

Food52 and its co-founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs have invited you, fun-loving HuffPost Food readers, to vote on the contest for week 9 (of the second year).

Week 9's showdown is for the best meatball recipe.

Check the finalists out below, and vote for your favorite here.

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Kefta-Style Meatballs with Grilled Grapes and Yogurt Sauce

Photo: Melanie Einzig

Amanda and Merrill's notes on "Kefta-Style Meatballs with Grilled Grapes and Yogurt Sauce" on Food52.com:

You will fall in love with this recipe as you're mixing the meatball mixture, which sends up wafts of cinnamon, mint and garlic. After browning the meatballs, you sandwich them between a grilled (seared, really) grape -- we used red, and loved how their skins blistered and charred -- and a garlicky, lemon yogurt sauce. For parties, you can make everything ahead of time, and assemble the skewers and sauce just before guests arrive. - A&M

View the "Late Summer Plum Cake" recipe here.

Vote for this recipe here.

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Meatballs Emilia-Romagna with Pasta Sheets

Photo: Melanie Einzig

Amanda and Merrill's notes on "Meatballs Emilia-Romagna with Pasta Sheets" on Food52.com:

This recipe is a marathon, but you'll have a runner's high by the time you brown the meatballs and start smelling the goodness to come. Do all your prep work first because once that's done, the recipe is a snap. You mix and shape the meatballs -- which are made with succulent ground short rib meat -- and after browning them in a pan, you use the pan drippings as the base for a rich Bolognese-like sauce. The pasta sheets are a great touch - a way to make impromptu, loosely-formed lasagna without all the counting of layers and baking. Thirschfeld really channeled his inner nonna on this one. - A&M

View the "Meatballs Emilia-Romagna with Pasta Sheets" recipe here.

Vote for this recipe here.

Comments

[Peter Aursnes]

04:52 AM on 08/23/2010

Have you tried the meat balls from IKEA?

[ZenCrusader]

09:09 AM on 08/21/2010

Meatballs made from short rib must be especially delicious !

[VapeGirl]

09:02 PM on 08/20/2010

You'd think they would know that you can make an awesome meatball without any meat - it uses toasted whole-wheat bread, kidney beans and mushrooms instead. ^_^ Delicious!

[ksc1984]

07:47 AM on 08/21/2010

Mmm, sounds great! Can I ask where one might find this recipe? Is it vegan? I'm always looking for meatless options.

[up420oz]

06:43 PM on 08/23/2010

I never understood the reason why vegans want to have tofu that taste like meat. Its tofu, and no matter what, it will never have the taste or texture of meat.
It your decision to be a vegan, so be a vegan.

[snaggle2th]

07:58 PM on 08/21/2010

A meatless meatball is a contradiction in terms. As is vegetarian Chili....

[Maezeppa]

03:17 PM on 08/20/2010

For a supposedly enviro-friendly site, Huffpo sure promos the beef. Are these paid placements by the ranchers association?

[VapeGirl]

09:00 PM on 08/20/2010

I know...weird huh.

[Hematite]

01:58 PM on 08/21/2010

Not at all. There is nothing inherently un-green about meat. In fact, it is impossible to produce soy or wheat with as little environmental disruption as it is possible to produce meat.

[Hematite]

09:29 PM on 08/23/2010

A whole lot better than promoting soy or rice.

[Maezeppa]

09:44 PM on 08/23/2010

What do you think of the desertification of Africa due to cattle ranching? Out of sight out of mind? Or do you see how the practice might have severe and adverse impacts that will affect everybody who happesn to live on the planet?

[DSOTM]

01:16 PM on 08/20/2010

Just checked out the Meatball and Pasta Sheet recipe, if you have to go out and purchase every ingredient, you will probably spend about 60 bucks.

[J-Bro]

02:13 PM on 08/20/2010

The Prosciutto can definitely run the cost up, but you can get it at a good deli and only buy what you need. The rest looks really straight forward and pretty inexpensive to me, but I make my own pasta, so that's like $.50 for 10 big sheets or so (flour, olive oil, egg).

[leajazz]

04:25 AM on 08/25/2010

Your right.This is why I just look for different ideas and don't follow recipes.

[wm1066]

11:30 AM on 08/20/2010

Well, you have to grind the meat three times in a hand grinder then boil the meatballs in stock, thats the secret of a good Swedish Meat ball...according to Irene Dunn in the movie "I Remember Mama"