Sorry Armenia, Nothing Beats A Fabrizi Meatball

I am half Italian, so I have eaten my fair share of meatballs. My Grandma Rose makes the best meatballs I've ever tasted, and no matter how many times I attempt to replicate them, nothing is ever as good as hers. My point is this: when it comes to meatballs, I have high standards. So Armenian Stuffed Meatballs (Kufta) were pretty much doomed from the start.

First of all, kufta are boiled. This doesn't seem right to me, because I think ground meat should be baked and browned. Secondly, kufta are "stuffed" with more ground meat. I think if you're going to bother stuffing something, there better be cheese in there. But that's just me. In any case, kufta seem to be a popular dish in the landlocked country of Armenia so I decided to give them a go.

Once again I found myself going back and forth between two different recipes. I'm starting to think that when this is all over, I should write my own international cookbook with all of my adapted (and perfected) recipes!

The first step was browning ground meat and sauteing chopped onions and spices. I used fresh parsley, paprika, ground cumin, and ground corriander seed. I also toasted some pine nuts, chopped them, and added them to the pan. This made up the stuffing. I set it aside to cool.

In the meantime I mixed by hand ground lamb, bulgar, chopped onion, salt and pepper, and a little water. This made up the casing. I pressed chunks of the lamb mixture flat into my hand, piled on a spoonful of filling, and then folded the casing around it until it formed a ball. Once these were all assembled I boiled a pot of chicken stock, and then gently added the meatballs.

If we were judging these recipes by presentation, this meal would score a zero. All of my meatballs cracked open while boiling, and when I put them on a plate they kind of resembled cat food. I've decided not to even post the photo, because I'm worried it might turn your stomach. The next strike against my Armenian meatballs was the fact that they were extremely dry. I had read somewhere in my recipe search that you can serve kufta with tzatziki sauce, and thank goodness I listened to that suggestion! The flavor of the meatball was decent because the spices really stood out. And when I added a dollop of tzatziki and placed them on a piece of lavash bread with some mixed greens, the kufta were not half bad!

I am standing by my original conviction that meatballs should not be boiled. And kufta can't hold a candle to Rose Fabrizi's meatballs.

Armenia scores a 2.0.