These lamb meatballs are cooked in a spiced tomato sauce from my days at AOC long ago:

These meatballs are good topped with torn mint leaves, parsley leaves, crumbled feta, and toasted pine nuts, and they can be served with flatbread, bulgur, or some couscous cooked in ½ orange juice and ½ water.

lamb meatballs:

 4 # ground lamb shoulder (these are also surprisingly great with turkey, and you can make them with 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 lamb as well)

1 1/2 cups minced yellow onion

 2-3 cups fresh bread crumbs (day-old bread, cut off the crust, tear

it up and process in food processor until crumbed)

1/2 cup cream

4 egg yolks

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. aleppo pepper (or bittersweet paprika if you

can't find aleppo)

a few pinches cayenne

4 tsp. salt

black pepper

chopped parsley (optional)

combine cream, eggs, onion and all seasoning...mix...add meat and then crumbs and parsley...mix...sear off a little taste and try it. If delicious, form balls and then sear them off (deep color on outside, raw in middle)

spiced tomato sauce:

in a deep saucepan, flavor olive oil with rosemary and arbol chili

(be careful not to make the sauce too oily, cause some of the fat from the meatballs will cook out into the sauce)

add 2 diced yellow onions

add thyme, 2 tsp. ground cumin, 1/2 tsp. Ground cinnamon, pinch

cayenne, s&p

when onions are cooked but not colored add the rest of  this stuff:

2 bay leaves

1 strip orange zest

1 can tomatoes passed through a food mill or blender

1 cup water or stock

juice of 1 orange

(pinch of sugar if needed)

cook slowly until desired consistency (reduced by about 1/3)

Add seared meatballs to the sauce and heat on the stove or in the oven until cooked through.