Biting Into the Past: Recreating Gary Nabhan’s Albóndigas Meatball Recipe

Albóndigas have traveled far. Born as hazelnut-sized lamb meatballs in Arab kitchens, they crossed into Spain with the Moors in the eighth century CE, voyaged to the Americas with conquistadors and simmered their way into Mexican kitchens. Today they arrive at most tables as comforting orbs bobbing in tomato broth. But in their earliest form, they tasted nothing like what we know now.

This dish’s long-overlooked origin story is one ecologist, ethnobotanist and author Gary Nabhan has spent years uncovering. Albóndigas have carried their story across centuries, weaving through Levantine kitchens, across North Africa and Iberia, and finally to the American Southwest, where echoes of their past still linger. “Meatballs are all over the world,” Nabhan writes, “but lamb meatballs seasoned with parsley, cinnamon, cloves and allspice, or nutmeg and mace, are a special lineage.”

His aim? To re-create albóndigas as they might have tasted when Moors brought them to Spain. Nabhan’s version—with spiced ground lamb and a tart pomegranate dip—bears little resemblance to the comforting albóndigas you’ll find at the table of your Mexican abuela (grandmother) or even in your typical tapas bar in Spain.

The very name, albóndigas, comes from the Arabic al-bunduq, meaning hazelnut, a nod to their original size. According to Arabic food historian Nawal Nasrallah, their roots go back even further: to kofta, popular in ancient Persia and the Middle East. “We don’t know exactly how old they are,” she says, “but recipes begin turning up in some of the oldest Arabic cookbooks.”

When Arabs entered the Iberian Peninsula in 711 CE, they brought hazelnut-shaped meatballs with them. Later, the Spanish adapted the recipe, and in the Americas, tomatoes and chilies transformed it again. “They adapted the recipe based on what they found,” Nasrallah notes. “That’s how these recipes evolve.”

Cooking this dish isn’t just about meatballs. Nabhan’s recipe attempts to reclaim a taste of the past, seasoned with Silk Road spices and paired with the tang of pomegranate molasses. To follow it is to ask: How much of history can we hold in a single bite?

Intrigued, and a devotee of the meatball in all its forms, I decide I must try the recipe. My love of meatballs runs deeper than casual comfort food. They’ve been my companions across cultures: Italian polpette, Swedish köttbullar, Turkish köfte. Each version carries a story, but this one promised something older, almost mythical. Could Nabhan’s lamb albóndigas claim the crown? That question pulls me into the kitchen.

At first, I’m tempted to substitute beef for lamb—ground lamb isn’t easy to find where I live. But Nabhan is clear: It’s not any old meatball,” he tells me. “It’s lamb, not pork or beef.”