For someone who absolutely despises the taste and smell of anything remotely like aniseed or liquorice, I’m surprisingly coming to appreciate ingredients like fennel seed and caramelized fennel root. I can even tolerate fennel that isn’t cooked down to the point where it just tastes of sweetness!

My slowly growing tolerance for the fennel family is where these meatballs come in. When I first tried them at Polpo, one of my top London restaurants, I was really reluctant, but my dining partner was eager to sample them. I gave in and I’m really glad I did… they were delicious.

They were so good that I have even tried replicating them at home. While my pork and fennel meatballs are not exactly the same (for one thing I make mine a lot smaller), they’re easy to make and delicious. Just as an aside, I haven’t bought the Polpo cookbook (yet), so these are my own recipe, rather than from the book, but I’m eager to compare them.

My favorite way to eat these is with a slow-cooked tomato sauce and spaghetti, though they’re pretty good as Swedish meatballs, too. One of the best things about meatballs is making a big batch and freezing the leftovers for future quick and easy weeknight dinners.

I’ve tested regular and gluten-free versions, which I’ve included in the recipe below. Next trial: egg-free meatballs.

Serves: 8

On the Counter

500 g ground pork
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1 small onion (1/2 cup or 75 g), very finely diced or blitzed in the food processor
1 egg
50 g breadcrumbs or blitzed gluten-free oats
1 clove garlic, finely minced or blitzed
1 tsp salt

What to Do

Combine all ingredients and squish them together until thoroughly combined. Take enough of the mix to make 2.5 cm/1 in diameter meatballs into your hand, and roll them into a ball. (If you’re worried about the meat sticking to you, rub just a drop of vegetable oil onto your hands before rolling.)

Once you’ve rolled all your meatballs, set 4-5 per person aside if you’re using them for pasta or Swedish meatballs with sides. Take the rest and lay them on a flat baking sheet, then cover it tightly with plastic wrap and freeze them overnight. (The next day, you can just throw them into a zip-top bag and back into the freezer.)

There are 2 ways to go forward with meatballs now. You can sear them in a very hot pan with a little oil, turning them so they brown on all sides. The other option, and my preferred, is to lay them all on a baking sheet in 1 layer, and bake them in the oven (200C/390F) for at least 5 minutes per “side” to ensure browning and consistent texture.

Once you’ve browned them, you can try them in Swedish meatballs, or cooked low and slow in a tomato sauce.

Recently, the gentleman and I were in Sweden for few days. It was my first trip that far north – which is a fact I checked on the map as I write this. (I’ve also just learned that most of Scotland is a lot further north than I realized.)

Besides the super-friendly people, the ease of watching ice hockey on TV (yep hockey fan here), and the interesting (but expensive) beer selection, my favorite part of Sweden was the food. Of course.

Oh, the food. Giant buffet breakfasts with 3 kinds of eggs, caviar in a tube, yogurt with seeds, cereal, nuts – you name it. Four kinds of bread, pastries…

But this is not a breakfast recipe. Because just about everything that I had on our four days in Sweden was excellent. Cinnamon buns at the cafe, chicken terrine, Swedish-style beef tartare and wild boar (a-may-zinng) for our Valentine’s Day dinner, pub dinners that included beef stew, lightly breaded fried fish and brisket…

Ok, I need to stop. Just know that Sweden = delicious.

In the interest of authenticity and a bit of tourism, we had to have try Swedish meatballs. Maybe the ones that were considered the best in town. Maybe we looked them up to check.

And then, maybe the weekend after, just in time for the Sweden/Canada Olympic Ice Hockey gold medal game, we made homemade Swedish meatballs. They got rave reviews from the hockey viewing party, who all happened to be rooting for the Swedish team. I think the meatballs helped heal our crushed spirits.

If you like comfort food that’s easy to make and store in the freezer – you should make these too.

To keep mostly authentic, I’d suggest serving them with mashed potatoes (mine included whole grain mustard because a. it’s delicious and b. there was a lot of mustard in Sweden) and lingonberry jam. Slightly less authentically, we may have also had some steamed spinach. It worked well.

Ikea sells a reasonably good and reasonably cheap jar of lingonsylt (lingonberry jam), and I personally think it’s also delicious stirred into oatmeal or on toast.

Makes about 35 meatballs, and they freeze well.
Serving size: 3-4 meatballs

On the Counter

2.2 pounds (1 kg) ground beef (or 50/50 beef-pork mixture)
2 medium onions, grated
1 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs
4/5 cup (200 ml) milk
1 cup beef or chicken broth
100 g whole wheat breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp creme fraiche or sour cream
1 tsp + 1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Serve with:
Mashed Potatoes
Lingonberry Jam
Spinach (optional, less traditional)

What to Do

Combine the milk and breadcrumbs and set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, sweat onions in 1 tbsp olive oil until soft, transfer to large bowl and allow to cool. Add beef and pork to onions, mix in eggs, milk and breadcrumbs, season with allspice, 1 tsp salt and several grinds of black pepper. Combine well and allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes.

Form meat into balls (roughly one inch in diameter) by rolling them between your palms until they’re tightly packed. Set aside those that you plan to cook and see below for freezing suggestions.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add meatballs in a single layer and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes total. Set meatballs aside on a plate, and finish off all meatballs. Put them all back into the pot and add broth.

Cover the pot, and simmer over medium-low heat until the meatballs are cooked through, (with an internal temperature of 170 F or  76.5 C) about 10 minutes.

Add soy sauce and crème fraîche or sour cream. Stir carefully to just combine and simmer until the sauce begins to thicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To freeze: Line up the remaining meatballs on a cookie sheet lined in plastic wrap. Cover them with more plastic wrap. Freeze them overnight, and transfer them into a zip top bag. They should be fine in the freeze for 3-4 months, and probably longer.