Can A MeatBall Really Look Appetizing?

I don't suppose it really matters if these chicken patties look appetizing, because they were delicious. Deeply savory, with just the right amount of salt from bits of crisply fried bacon-- who knew that something so blase as ordinary minced chicken, could truly be so sublime?


It all started out with a pound of bacon, bought on the weekend. Some of it was fried and crumbled in a salad, a few slices used as an accoutrement to a soft-boiled egg, but what to do with the remainder? While flipping through the pages of my newest, favorite cookbook, I found a recipe for Chicken Patties with Rosemary and Pancetta, and I knew that would be it. I know, I know, pork products are not all interchangeable, but I have been on a "use up everything in your fridge" kick lately, and so I substituted the pancetta for the bacon. A quick trip outside to pluck a few sprigs of woodsy, herbaceous rosemary, and a stroll to the market to buy minced chicken, and I was halfway there.

Clean and simple, yet immensely flavorful, these gems were calling out to be nestled upon a pillow of coarsely mashed potatoes. Boiled with the skin on, the potatoes had that extra hominess, that can only come from hand-mashed potatoes, lumps and all. Laying in the shallow dish before me, with splashes of reduced chicken broth from the cooking process, this meal was the bourgie meatball. A meatball +, if you will, and I ate up my meatballs with abandon.

If you would like the recipe for Chicken Patties with Rosemary and Pancetta, it is on the Daily Specials page. Eat up!