Party Flavors: Meatball sliders

The party food landscape has become increasingly homogeneous, with its ubiquitous bag of Doritos rather than homemade fudge or stuffed mushrooms. Columnist Erin Nyren would like to bring back the house parties of yore, in which everyone cooked or baked something to share.

I have little to no knowledge of the sports world, so I had no idea the Super Bowl was this past weekend until a few days before. So when I realized I had missed an opportunity to make a Super Bowl party-themed dish for this column, I was not pleased.

For this week’s recipe, I decided to do something appropriate for a sports viewing party, despite the fact that it will come four days too late for the Super Bowl.

After Googling “Super Bowl party food,” I found a meatball slider recipe. It only required a few ingredients, some of which I already had, and took less than an hour to prepare.

I was glad to see the simplicity of the meatball-making process. I had never made them before and for some reason had a preconceived notion that it would be difficult. I could not have been more wrong.

For perfect meatballs, throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mash them up into a pinkish, sticky, Play-Doh-like mass. Just make sure all the tasty bits, like the Parmesan and parsley, are evenly distributed and that’s it. Roll the mixture into balls, stick them in a hot oven for about 15 minutes and they’re good to go.

I substituted in lean ground turkey for ground beef because I prefer to eat beef only once per month for environmental reasons. Side note: For those unaware, raising cattle for slaughter uses an ungodly amount of water per unit compared to poultry.

Extremely inexpensive, the simple tomato sauce added a welcome and surprising zing and dimension to the sliders. Unlike branded pasta sauce like Prego or Bertolli, the chopped tomatoes tend to separate from the sauce if left in a container. However, I didn’t taste a difference, although followers of my column know that I am not discerning between red sauces.

Oddly, I couldn’t find either baby spinach or slider buns at Ralphs; I spent a good ten minutes walking back and forth in the bread aisle. Conceding defeat, I decided to DIY the slider buns by purchasing regular hamburger buns and slicing them into fourths. They turned out probably a little smaller than actual slider buns, but were perfectly functional nonetheless.

The most difficult part of the recipe: slicing the thick mozzarella cheese log into thin slices. I don’t own a cheese slicer, so I wrestled a regular knife through the cheese. I just couldn’t get the slices to anything I would call “thin,” and I was worried they wouldn’t melt over the meatballs because they were too thick. I was fretting over nothing though, since the cheese melted down into gooey sheets just fine after around five to eight minutes in the oven.

Once I finished warming the tomato sauce and blanketing the meatballs with the mozzarella, the assembly took a few tries to get just right.

When I used the makeshift slider buns the way I’d use hamburger buns – with the thinner slice on the bottom and the thick one on top – the slider was difficult to pick up with its soggy bottom. I decided to use the top bun as the bottom bun, wondering if actual slider buns have a thicker bottom bun to prevent disintegration. This bun order reversal prevented sogginess, although it was not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as actual slider buns would have been.

Eating them was also more challenging than expected. When I tried to bite into one, sometimes the other half of the meatball would try to slide out the back. I was not a fan of wondering whether the meatball was going to fall out or not. I tilted my head backwards slightly when taking a bite, so the force of gravity helped keep the meatball in place. Simply popping the whole thing into your mouth in one bite would work too.

My favorite part of this recipe was the meatballs – they had the ideal meatball texture, and the Parmesan and parsley added flavor. I was also partial to the spinach leaf, since it added an element of healthiness that is normally absent from anything slider-related. I’ll definitely consider making these for my next sports party – just kidding, I don’t have sports parties.

What’s the best food you’ve ever eaten at a party? Email Nyren at [email protected].