The meatballs Americans know best are the ground beef, Italian variety that crowns a plate of spaghetti, or nestled with marinara and gooey cheese inside a crusty roll as a hoagie.
Yet so many other cultures love meatballs, too, even if they use different meats, spices and cooking methods to craft the ingredients into a delicious bite-sized nosh.
Depending on the cook and the favorite meat in the country of origin — lamb is a key ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine while pork rules supreme in Asia — meatballs can be fried, steamed, boiled, grilled or braised. Many are dipped in egg and flour and rolled in breadcrumbs to add a crispy outer layer; others are slowly simmered in a liquid or sauce for juicy tenderness.
The meat can be chopped, minced or even ground into a paste before being rolled into its prototypical shape. Some don’t include meat at all but instead are built using grains like rice or quinoa and stuffed with a surprise filling like cheese or peas. Italian arancini, crafted with short-grain risotto rice and filled with mozzarella cubes, are a perfect example.
What connects the meatballs of the world is a shared frugality born out of the practice of stretching a small amount of meat or other expensive ingredient into something that’s easy to cook, is extremely flavorful and offers nourishment for many.
Also, they’re just plain fun to eat.
These five recipes span the globe from Germany and Italy to China, Morocco and Japan. All are pretty easy to pull together using supermarket ingredients and simple techniques. If you can form a ball in the palm of your hand, you’ve got it!

Mozzarella-stuffed Arancini
Makes 18.