Spinach Balls — Helen’s Kind of Recipe: Simple, Green, and Made by Hand

The corn came in this week — six dozen ears from the eighty stalks I planted in May, a successful corn year by any measure I can apply. I picked the first ears Monday and kept picking through the week, eating corn for supper most nights — boiled five minutes, butter and salt, eaten at the table by the window. There is no improvement on a fresh-picked ear of sweet corn boiled within an hour of picking. The corn is its own argument and does not require accompaniment beyond the butter and the salt. I ate two ears most nights and three on Saturday, which is a respectable rate of consumption and which puts me on track to use the entire harvest within the freshness window before the corn turns starchy.

Made succotash Tuesday with the corn and the beans from the row — the proper succotash, lima beans and corn kernels and a little butter and a splash of cream and chopped fresh herbs at the end. Helen made succotash every August for forty years and the recipe is in her notebook, on a page that has corn-juice stains on it from the times she made it without a clean apron. I followed the recipe exactly as written. The succotash came out the way it is supposed to come out, which is to say creamy and corn-sweet and bean-earthy and a perfect side dish for almost anything else on the table.

The blog post on the succotash was a tribute to Helen, by which I mean it was the recipe with the photograph of the page in her notebook and a brief paragraph about her August succotash discipline and the corn-juice stain on the page. The comments came in heavier than usual — readers responding to the photograph of the handwriting more than the recipe itself, the visual of a cook's notebook with the evidence of years of use being a powerful thing for any person who has ever known a cook who used a notebook that way. A woman in Vermont wrote in to say her mother's notebooks looked just like that and that she had not opened them since her mother's death twelve years ago and that the post had made her go down to the basement and find the box. I do not know whether she opened the notebooks. I have learned not to ask.

Sarah's 8 PM call ran long — almost an hour, which is the longest call of the summer — and we spent most of it talking about Lucy's coming move to Philadelphia in September, the logistics of the move, the apartment Lucy has found near the university, the fact that Sarah will help drive her down at the end of August. Sarah said the trip will be the last big drive she takes with Lucy as an unattached adult before Lucy starts the program and before her schedule becomes the schedule of a graduate student. I said: take the long way. Sarah said: we will. I said: stop somewhere overnight that has nothing to do with Philadelphia. Sarah said: that's a good idea. The conversation drifted from there into the particular way mothers and daughters relate when the daughter is twenty-eight and on the cusp of the next phase of an already-impressive young adulthood, and I listened mostly, the way I always listen to Sarah talk about Lucy, the way I would have listened to Helen talk about Sarah at twenty-eight, except Helen never had the chance because Sarah at twenty-eight was after Helen had been gone for two years already, the timeline collapsing in the way timelines collapse when you are seventy-two and counting.

The succotash week put me in the frame of mind for vegetable cooking that requires some attention but not much ceremony — the kind of recipe Helen kept in her notebook alongside the corn dishes, the ones that asked you to use your hands and apply a little judgment. Spinach balls are that kind of recipe: you mix, you shape, you bake, and what comes out is a small, satisfying thing that holds together and rewards the effort. I made a batch the following evening with the thought that Lucy, before she leaves for Philadelphia, ought to have a few more suppers at a table where someone cooked something green and passed it around without ceremony.

Spinach Balls

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6 (about 24 balls)

Ingredients

• 2 (10 oz) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed very dry
• 2 cups herb-seasoned stuffing mix, finely crushed
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.
2. Dry the spinach thoroughly. After thawing, place the spinach in a clean kitchen towel or several layers of paper towels and wring out as much liquid as possible. This step matters — wet spinach will prevent the balls from holding their shape.
3. Combine the ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the dried spinach, crushed stuffing mix, Parmesan, beaten eggs, melted butter, minced onion, garlic powder, pepper, and salt. Mix well with a fork or your hands until everything is evenly incorporated.
4. Check and chill if needed. The mixture should hold together when pressed. If it feels too loose, refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm it up before shaping.
5. Shape the balls. Using about 1 tablespoon of mixture per ball, roll firmly between your palms into smooth rounds roughly 1 to 1 1/4 inches in diameter. Place them on the prepared baking sheet about an inch apart.
6. Bake. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the outside is set, lightly golden, and firm to the touch. They should not look wet in the center.
7. Rest and serve. Allow to rest on the pan for 5 minutes before serving. Serve warm as a side dish or appetizer. They reheat well in a 325°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 290 | Protein: 13g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 18g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 520mg