Meatball

Spaghetti and meatballs get spiced up with a classic Italian sauce. All'amatriciana hails from Amatrice, a town northeast of Rome. Classic all'amatriciana sauce is made from tomatoes, guanciale (salt-cured pig's jowl), and hot peppers. Here, bacon stands in for the guanciale.

A tagine is a Moroccan stew. In this version, tender beef meatballs are braised with vegetables, then served over herbed couscous.

Here's an excellent reason to make a beeline for the ground-chicken section of the meat department: moist, flavorful meatballs speckled with pancetta and glazed with tomato paste. These are wonderful made with white or dark meat.

This is a true Italian feast: Little meatballs served with the antipasti come just before big meatballs in the ragù. Miraglia Eriquez's grandmother used to fry these snacks while her sauce simmered. As the meatballs spattered in the pan, the family would crowd into the kitchen to eat them hot. Your guests will do the same, whetting their appetites for the food to come.

Albóndigas (meatballs) are often served in a soup or a sauce, but our skewered version needs only a squeeze of refreshing lime juice to bring out their meaty richness. Spicy chipotle, crumbled bacon, and a hint of cumin make them unforgettable.

If you have trouble getting the chicken mixture to roll into balls, chill it for up to 30 minutes or add another 1/4 cup of crumbs.

These bite-size shrimp balls make for ideal finger food—plus, kids will love the name.

Okay, so maybe they're more like footballs. You can serve this Mediterranean-influenced dish with a dipping sauce made with Greek yogurt (about a cup), 1 diced cucumber, and a pinch each of parsley, cumin, and salt.

This classic goes best with a tart berry sauce.

For a substantial vegetarian spin on köfte(a kind of Middle Eastern meatball), we beefed up grated zucchini with fresh herbs and mashed chickpeas. The accompanying pilaf, which uses both beets and their greens, is brilliantly colored and gets a joyous crunch from slivered almonds.

Meatballs in Tomato Sauce Served with rice, this is one of the homely everyday dishes of virtually every Sephardi community. We called them "blehat." In Turkey they call them "yullikas." In the old days people fried the meatballs first, but now you often find them poached in the sauce. Sometimes they are briefly roasted in the oven at high heat to brown them slightly and firm them before stewing.

Merguez, the spicy lamb sausages of North Africa, are popular throughout France. These nearly labor-free patties are a quick way to re-create them in your kitchen. The sweetness of the raisin couscous contrasts nicely with the meat's deep spice.

Serve with warm flatbread or pita bread.

Three make a meal, but a bunch make fun party hors d'oeuvres. Look for the rolls at a local bakery.

Food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez often cooks for hordes of children, including her three-year-old son, Alex, and she knows that meatballs are always an easy sell. Inspired by the tiny meatball sandwiches served at New York City's Little Owl restaurant, she came up with these kid-size treats that can be eaten with one hand (leaving the other one free to wreak kid-size havoc).

Enlivened with crisp water chestnuts and fresh cilantro, these delicate Asian-inspired veal and pork meatballs are a world away from their Italian counterpart — but they're just as moist and irresistible.

Fresh marinara sauce makes all the difference in these robust sandwiches. Look for it near the cheeses and fresh pasta at the supermarket.

Food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez got the idea of using egg fettuccine in place of lasagne noodles in this deliciously over-the-top lasagne from Mary Ann Castaldi, the mother of her college roommate, who would send her daughter back to school with a giant pan of lasagne after weekends at home.

(Ground Beef Patties) My son Samir loves shami kebabs with pooris (deep-fried wheat bread). They are also very tasty with basmati rice and raita (yogurt sauce).