The Great Meatball Matchup

On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese…
Scratch that, no spaghetti here, nor cheese, but more meatballs than you have ever seen in your life!
This was the second annual Great Meatball Matchup at the American Swedish Museum and what a treat! I reeked of garlic, rifted onions, had tomato sauce evidence and fell in love with lingonberries.
There were at least twenty professionals and amateurs dishing it out! The turn out was stupendous with meatball lovers like myself just stuffing in as many meatballs as we could.
Oh yes, most were the traditional herb, garlic and onion meatballs swimming in plenty rich tomato sauce, but we also got to try chicken meatballs, pork and provolone and Swedish, of course.
You think it’s an easy challenge, right? You can stuff one of every meatball in and then judge, right? Then Dad’s Stuffing is there serving a zillion choices of not only meatballs but huge stuffing balls, hello, I downed seven meatballs and even beat hubby who had six! Two tiny young girls giggled while listening to our conversation and informed us they each had ten!
I know, it sounds easy, even when you walk in starving and the aromas are so invigorating, but these were huge meatballs for the most part, I mean like 4 – 6 bites each. I really did appreciate, especially towards the end, the tiny meatballs that went down with one bite!
One of my very favorite bakeries, Liscio’s provided the rolls for those who insisted on having a meatball sandwich, think those are what did hubby in. I loved all the different ways to enjoy a meatball, have to admit, IKEA with the lingonberry sauce was my favorite, the Swedish meatballs were a nice treat and mostly made by the amateur group.
The woman who won the amateur competition, Jennifer Colella, brought her grandmother over from Sicily and she made some mighty good meatballs! For the Pro’s, Pastificio Homemade Pasta Co. won and they had some tasty meatballs, as well!
This year I started with the first stand and slowly worked my way down through as many tables as I could muster. Next year and I will be there next year, I will scout all of the delicious meatballs and have myself a ball (or twenty)!
And, do you think it would be tacky to sneak in a side of pasta, some cheese and garlic bread?