Braised Meatballs with Artichokes and Fennel

Ingredients

• 455 g baby artichokes fresh whole frozen thaw trimmed quartered (one 340-g) (no need to )
• 1 teaspoon pepper black with the salt freshly ground halved
• 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs fresh
• 1 teaspoon dill dried
• 1 large egg whites 
• 1 large fennel bulb sliced chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 2 teaspoons juice of lemon 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon oregano dried
• 2 medium shallots minced
• 1 large tomatoes chopped
• 1.5 tablespoons tomato paste reduced-sodium
• 360 ml vegetable broth reduced-sodium
• 225 g flour whole wheat
• 1 large onion yellow chopped
• 455 g frangelico 
• 455 g frangelico 

Equipment

• bowl
• pot

Directions

1. Mix the ground meat, egg white, bread crumbs, shallots, oregano, dill, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper in a medium bowl until uniform—that is, until the spices are spread evenly throughout; the bread crumbs, too; and the egg white is no longer visible as a scummy film. Form this mixture into 12 golf balls.
2. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Meanwhile, spread the flour on a plate. Swirl the oil into the pot, then roll half the balls in the flour.
3. Put them in the pot and brown on all sides. (OK, geometry teachers, balls don't have sides. But you know what I mean.) About 7 minutes will do it.
4. Transfer them to a plate and repeat with the remaining balls.
5. Dump the onion, fennel, tomato, and artichokes into the pot. Stir over the heat until the onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes.
6. Pour in the broth; stir in the tomato paste, lemon juice, cinnamon, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper. As the mixture begins to simmer, make sure you scrape up any browned bits in the pot. Then tuck the meatballs into the simmering sauce and pour any juices on their plate over everything. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer slowly for 1 hour.
7. More to Know
8. If you've never worked with fresh baby artichokes, take this warning to heart: You may need to lose a little more than half of each before they're ready to go in the stew.
9. Cut the top third off the artichoke, getting rid of any spiky points, even inside. Then pull off the outer leaves until you get down to a small pale green, sometimes yellowish, teardrop-shaped vegetable. The choke inside (the hairy bits in a bigger artichoke) is still edible in these small ones, so there's no need to remove it. Or buy frozen baby artichokes and be done with it.
10. From Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. Text copyright © 2011 Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough; photographs copyright © 2011 Marcus Nilsson. Published in 2011 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, an imprint of ABRAMS.