Ricotta and oregano meatballs from Ottolenghi Simple (page 221) by Yotam Ottolenghi

Ingredients

ricotta cheese
chicken stock
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Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Accompaniments: Cucumber and lamb's lettuce salad; Gnocchi alla Romana

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

carolyn_bhwd0z on June 01, 2026

Done this many times a faviu
malia_s6fgqm on May 30, 2026

Very good but could not fit it all in 1 pan
sara_kwi3s0 on May 20, 2026

I made the recipe for meatballs as written except halved. My meatballs were golf ball sized. For the white bread I used a quality French bread. The meatballs are very tender. I browned them well in the pan then finished in the oven on a rack for about 10 minutes at 350°. I used a quality jarred marinara sauce that I doctored up a bit. A great recipe.
janeths on March 31, 2026

Yum. My comfort food. The ricotta is really good in the meatballs.
PriyaPath on March 28, 2026

Excellent flavour, a very different version of meatballs. Very savoury.
treay on January 09, 2026

This dish is perfect for making it ahead and just reheated the following day. It actually helps develop the flavours and it is even more delicious. The ricotta makes the meatballs very light and my husband reckons it would be the perfect dish to have with pasta. If you do so, make the meatballs smaller. This time it was our dinner for our Pure protein diet day, but I'd love to eat them next to oven cooked chips and a salad. The flavours are amazing.
EmilyR on December 28, 2025

Have you ever decided it was a good idea to triple a recipe before ever trying with the benevolent intention of giving it to neighbors and friends? It sounds like a good idea at the time. That was what I decided with this recipe and the amount of labor and outcome about broke me. I’ve made plenty of homemade meatballs (one of my favorites remains the recipe in Bavel, which also uses ricotta). This just didn’t work out and I am sure it was my error in some realm - perhaps being altruistic and overly eager combined with being exhausted during the holidays, but regardless it felt like endless meat and scooping (I used a cookie scoop, which may have been the fatal error) and then the tomatoes singed onto the bottom of the pan and the meatballs that I diligently seared decided to become one with the sauce and disintegrate. Now we will eat this for days and I will be reminded that sometimes it’s better to just pour a glass of wine and be over it.
dinnermints on October 25, 2024

Update: tried baking the meatballs this time at 400° for 15-20min and that was fine, but the browned version of the meatballs that were then cooked in the sauce was yummier.
dinnermints on December 26, 2023

Made these for Christmas dinner and everyone just loved them, kids included. I put a little less salt in the tomato sauce and it still turned out a bit salty, next time would try using kosher salt or reducing salt further. For 2.5x the recipe we ended up with 50 meatballs (slightly larger than golf balls) - definitely smaller than the recipe suggests. The meatballs did stick to the pan quite a bit - next time would use a nonstick pan or bake them. The sauce took a long time to cook down (and even then was not like a “thick pasta sauce), so I’d try adding less stock next time. Served this over polenta. Might make again this week!
Ishie1013 on July 13, 2023

These were probably the best meatballs I've ever made. I was skeptical by the ratio of "other" ingredients to meat, but the meatballs were light, fluffy, and HUGE. The tomato sauce came together really nicely. Once the meatballs were gone, I spooned the tomato sauce onto sourdough toast as a kind of low rent bruschetta. I will make this again.
billcranecos on April 30, 2023

There are a lot of good reviews here, but our experience was not as good. The amount of breadcrumbs made for a gummy meatball. Perhaps my own breadcrumbs were too finely ground and if I repeat this then next time I'll go by weight and not by volume for the breadcrumbs. Good herbal flavor, but bad texture.
Pimlicocook on February 19, 2023

Deep, rich tomato sauce and light meatballs - I don't make meatballs often, and I enjoyed this. Easy to make, too. Served with buttered spinach.
dj2eats on March 31, 2022

3/4 of family loved these, one of them didn't care for the 'texture' - she's used to more traditional solid meatballs. Some of the balls were really difficult to keep together during the frying phase, but I didn't stress too much because I knew I could still eat the 'globs'. We had leftovers twice and each time the aroma of these meatballs were heavenly!
averythingcooks on January 24, 2022

These were delicious made with a mix of ground beef & "sweet with heat" sausage. However, to get the 12-14 meatballs expected, the meatballs must be huge. I made a 1/2 recipe and with meatballs around 35 g each (ie a "generous" golf ball) I got 16. I oven baked mine and served with a different sauce over spaghetti. I also wanted to compare to Julia Turshon's sausage ricotta version (which we also loved) - the key differences are that Ottolenghi specifies ground beef and includes bread crumbs, fresh oregano (and not basil) and egg. Not sure if we thought one was definitely better than the other but I do know for sure that we like our meatballs made with ricotta.
MissKoo on July 15, 2020

OMGilicious! These are just amazing, so light and flavorful. Everyone raved about them. Made a night ahead as they do take time; flavors just improved from that resting time. Opted to broil the meatballs on sheet pan about 4-5 minutes per side before placing in sauce rather than sauté to keep them together better. If you do mis en place and are in a hurry, do note that certain ingredients -- the onions, garlic, chopped oregano -- are halved. Half in the meatballs, half in the wonderful sauce. Recipe explains that, of course, but sidebar list of ingredients does not include the magic word "divided" by those ingredients.
KarinaFrancis on July 01, 2020

Omg these were fantastic! The flavour of the meatballs was delicious and the texture was super light from the ricotta. The mixture was very soft so we cooked the meatballs in a very hot oven before adding them to the sauce and they held together beautifully. The silver fox said “can we pleeeease make these again?” Winner!
Ro_ on January 24, 2020

These were lovely. I had to reduce the cooking time a little as pressed for time, but I don't think they suffered for it. The texture was great, very moist. No problems with breaking up in the pan. I should have added more salt though to the meatball mix.
Rachaelsb on November 22, 2019

Yum! Meatballs had great texture and flavor. Sauce was differently delicious.
Rinshin on March 12, 2019

Did not have problems of crumbly texture, but had problems with meatballs sticking using non-stick frying pan and abandoned frying in favor of baking them in 400f oven for about 25 min. These meatballs have sticky texture when raw due to fair amount of ricotta and parmesan cheese. Even with baking, there was some sticking. Loved the taste of the sauce which was very different from regular marinara because of chicken stock addition. The final dish was well balanced in flavor and meatballs had excellent texture and taste. Some might find the meatballs a little too soft in texture but we loved the texture served alone in a sauce like this. Because very soft textured, these meatballs need to be handled very, very gently.
kateroni on December 28, 2018

I made this for dinner for my husband and young kiddos, and it was a huge hit! Possibly our most favourite new recipe we've tried in months. The meatballs were a great texture, and the sauce was delicious. Bookmarking it as solid recipe to serve guests (as I can do most of the prep etc in advance, have the meatballs and sauce ready to cook before guests come).
Silverscreensuppers on December 04, 2018

I thought these were delicious. Boyfriend made the sauce while I made the meatballs which was fun. I used breadcrumbs from homemade walnut bread which gave the balls a perfect texture I thought. Yummy!
cultus.girl on October 27, 2018

This is a lovely recipe with beautiful flavour. Next time I would use breadcrumbs made from Italian bread which have a bit of “body”. My balls were a little crumbly.