Meatballs.

Most cuisines have it—ground meat pressed or rolled into compact, sauce covered morsels. Whether they’re on top of spaghetti, all covered in cheese, and primed for rolling, or served at your favourite Swedish furniture house, meatballs are a favourite around the world.

These aren’t exactly balls, and Sam argues that they are closer to hamburgers (with bread on the inside instead of the outside, I guess), but as they are a staple of Swiss comfort cooking, and covered in a creamy mushroom sauce, I file them as flattened meatballs.

Tätschli refers to the shape of the meatballs, and a sort of meatless variation of the dish might be to make mashed potato cakes Kartoffel-Tätschli and serve with the mushroom sauce. 

This is a favourite of Swiss children, so recipes abound. Betty Bossi sneaks in a carrot, and swissmilk has a herby butter topping, rather than mushroom sauce. I like the recipe at Fooby, with mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes. Heddi at Cuisine Helvetica has a recipe for a different kind of meatball, this time breaded, from canton Uri.

Meatballs:

100 g stale bread, cubed

200 ml milk

500 g ground beef, pork or veal

150 g Schweinsbrät or sausage meat (see note)

1 egg

1 tbsp mustard

zest of half a lemon

fresh herbs, chopped

Sauce

knob of butter

1 onion, diced

250 g mushrooms, sliced

125 ml white wine

200 ml stock

125 ml cream

salt and pepper

parsley to garnish

In a saucepan (or the microwave) warm the milk to just before boiling. Pour over the bread and let sit.

In a large bowl, mix together the meat, egg, mustard, zest and herbs.

Set out a plate for the meatballs, then add the milky bread to the meat mixture and mix by hand, forming flat meatballs and placing them on the plate.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Fry the flattened meatballs until cooked through, about 2-3 minutes per side, then remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the onion and mushrooms to the pan and fry for a few minutes. Add the white wine, then the stock and bring to a boil.

Turn the heat down, add the cream, and stir until you get a creamy, uniform sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

You can either add the meat back to the creamy mixture in the pan, or serve it separately, spooning the sauce over top.

Garnish with parsley.

• Brät is typically translated as sausage meat, or forcemeat and is made from veal (Kalbs-) or pork (Schweins-). Basically, highly processed (ground) meat (the veal variant is so finely ground that it’s almost a paste). You can ask for it directly from the butcher, or sometimes it is sold in packages in the meat section, near the ground beef. If you don’t have it, simply use the inside of a sausage, or just replace with more ground beef or pork.

• For the herbs, I like to add about a tbsp of chopped thyme and oregano, with a bit of rosemary as well. Chives or parsley would also be welcome, or even basil and a bit of mint.

• Serve with plenty of mashed potatoes.

• Serves four.