Yesterday With My Children We Made....Veal, Cilantro and Ricotta Meatballs

I had meant to make meatballs to my children for a while. Meatballs are not something I cook often. I don't know why because they are really fast to make and always a hit with my children. I wrote the other day that we don't go out a lot. That's true. On the other hand we tend to entertain (recevoir as we say in French) a lot . Or, to be more accurate, I tend to recevoir during the week while my husband is still at work. I have come to have my friends and their children over for a late-afternoon playdates, especially in the Winter when getting together au parc is not an enticing option. Since I feed my children early (because my older one is on her school schedule and requires a lot of sleep), I always offer to feed my friends' children together with mine on a week night. On Fridays, another friend generally comes with her children after school and we only have the goûter together.
When I cook dinner for three or four kids, I try to make something easy that all children would enjoy and that would be different from what my friend's children would eat at home. Juste équilibre but so far so good. It's always a pleasure to see other children eat what I cook for mine.

We had one of my friend and her two children over for dinner one evening and I thought that meatballs would be easy to serve. Yet, I wanted to move away from the traditional beef meatballs that are served over spaghetti. I also wanted to make sure that I could hide some herbs in the meatballs, just to add something different. In order to compensate for the meat dryness, I added fresh ricotta. My children had helped me prep them while waiting for our guests. They loved rolling meatballs in their hands. Et voilà! It was a success! They ate all of their meatballs and I had to save a few for my husband! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
(Makes about 12-16 meatballs)
- 1 pound of ground veal
- 1/2 cup of ricotta
- Fresh cilantro, scissored
- 1 egg, beaten
- Salt, black pepper to taste
- Curry powder (optional)

• Pre-heat oven to 350F (175C)
• In a bowl, mix the ground meat with the ricotta and fresh cilantro.
• Add beaten egg, salt and pepper, and curry powder and mix.
• Take small scoops of meat mixture and roll them to form balls
• Put the balls into a baking dish
• Bake for 20 minutes or until meat is fully cooked

My Personal Comments:

• You could make them with turkey or chicken
• You could saute them in a pan instead of cooking them in the oven
• Don't re-heat them in the microwave.