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A Good Appetite
A Lighter, Brighter Meatball
Quickly made in a skillet with ripe peaches, basil and lime juice, these meatballs are perfect for weeknights.
Meatballs are savory, versatile and easy, but they’re definitely not what comes to mind when I think of “seasonal cooking.”
Maybe it’s their long-term relationship with marinara sauce and spaghetti. Hearty and crowd-pleasing, yes. Buoyant and summery, not so much.
But these meatballs turn everything on its head.
With fresh basil, ground cumin and ginger, they’re heady and complex. But it’s the quick pan sauce that really sets them apart. The combination of ripe peaches and plenty of lime juice gives them a tangy brightness that’s refreshing enough for even the sultriest late-summer nights, along with all the seasonal credibility they could ever need.
You can make the meatballs with any kind of ground meat. Even vegan meat will work quite well. Pork, with its brawny, rich flavor, is my favorite, with dark meat turkey or chicken as close runners-up.
Really, it’s the panful of peach drippings that makes this dish shine. So, it’s worth buying the fruit ahead of time, and letting it soften and sweeten for a few days. Or, if you already have a surfeit of bruised, overripe fruit leaking nectar all over your counter, this is the recipe for you.
Just cut out any obviously browned spots before throwing the rest of the peach flesh into the skillet, where it will dissolve amid a bath of wine and the aromatic drippings from the meatballs to create the sauce.
As a rule, I don’t peel peaches because the fuzz doesn’t bother me. Fuzz haters can peel as they like. A sharp paring knife generally gets the job done more quickly and efficiently than a vegetable peeler. (No need to blanch them here.) Or substitute fuzz-free nectarines, which are arguably superior to peaches anyway.
When peach season wanes and plum season kicks into high gear, you can substitute diced plums, holding back slightly on the lime juice to make up for their tannic, puckery skins.
Then, as the cold sets in and fresh stone fruit disappears, you’ll still be able to throw this together using frozen peaches. Make sure to thaw and drain them before dicing and adding to the pan.
Of course, using frozen peaches does mean these meatballs would no longer be considered strictly seasonal fare. But no one will be sad to gobble them up when winter eventually arrives.
Melissa Clark has been a columnist for the Food section since 2007. She reports on food trends, creates recipes and appears in cooking videos linked to her column, A Good Appetite. She has also written dozens of cookbooks. More about Melissa Clark
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