Lamb Meatball Pitas

1. The first thing to do is prepare the lamb meatballs. Preheat the oven to 375 F and grab a 9 x 13 baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, eggs, pine nuts, mint, salt, saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, cumin, smoked paprika, and cayenne. Stir it all together well. Add the lamb last and incorporate it into the rest of the mixture until just combined. Adding the lamb in last after everything else is stirred helps to keep from overworking the meat! It leaves the meatballs nice and tender. Form the mixture into your preferred size meatballs and roll them in the additional breadcrumbs to coat them, then transfer them to the baking dish.

2. Bake the lamb meatballs in the oven for 40 minutes, until thoroughly cooked through. With the size that I made mine, I yielded 13 meatballs. That was perfect since I always like to have enough to make one more than I need so that I can taste test! When the meatballs are done, take them out of the oven and transfer them to a plate lined with paper towel. Lamb can have a decent amount of fat that will render out when it cooks. The paper towel will absorb any grease!

3. While the meatballs cook, make the yogurt sauce and gather the ingredients to assemble the lamb meatball pitas. For the yogurt sauce, all you need to do is combine the yogurt, cucumber, olive oil and salt in a bowl. Stir it together thoroughly and you have yourself an amazing and easy yogurt sauce!

4. Now it’s time to assemble the lamb pitas (or pit-zas). Toast the 4 pita breads until slightly crisp (in the toaster or using your preferred method) and get them onto plates. Spread about 3 tablespoons of hummus onto each pita and then drizzle two teaspoons of the yogurt sauce over the hummus. Take the hot meatballs and cut each one into 8 small pieces, then distribute 3 meatballs worth of the pieces evenly onto each pita over the hummus and sauce. Top with a generous sprinkle of the chopped spinach and onion slices. You’re ready to serve!

I quartered the pit-za just before eating to make it like pizza slices. These lamb pitas are little delights of Middle Eastern flavor in an Italian package. Perfection!