Meatballs

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Published 2012

About

Together with cheesy pastries, pickled cucumbers and a plate of hummus, meatballs are one of the ubiquitous Jerusalem dishes, celebrated by absolutely everyone — traditional Jews, fervent Christians, Palestinian eateries and funky fusion chefs. But, like polpette al sugo (meatballs in tomato sauce) in Italy, they are essentially a ‘Mama’ food: something simple, basic and familiar, yet loaded with memories and associations, and every Jerusalemite will have his or her own version.

There are hundreds of varieties of meatballs — kofta (in Arabic) and ktsitsot (in Hebrew) — each with its own unique heritage and specific preparation technique. It is, really, as a result of necessity more than anything that meatballs became such an essential part of the local food fabric. In a place where serving whole cuts of meat was, for most of its history, considered a mad extravagance, meatballs, kebabs and stuffed vegetables (see stuffed) were a sensible alternative.

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