Back in Naples, Louie Agostini's nonna taught him never, never to mash the meatballs. "Non schiacciare! Non schiacciare!," she warned. ("No smashing! No smashing!")

Chinese cooks get quite a different message: They're taught to blend the meat mixture vigorously and energetically throw it against the side of the mixing bowl.

Swedish cooks pride themselves on rolling even-sized spheres — for the smorgasbord table, no larger than the end of your thumb - and devising rich sauces.

However you make them, said Agostini, who lives in Honolulu, "everybody like meatballs." Having worked in the import-export business, Agostini has traveled extensively and says, "every culture, they have some kind of meatball. It's mama food."

Today in pricey restaurants, the line between rustic meatballs and high-rent quenelles is blurring, and chefs are making "mama food" with ingredients your mother never imagined, from Parma ham to Pacific oysters. During a recent trip to his one-time home in Hong Kong, Kapi'olani Community College dining room instructor Aaron Chau saw meatballs stuffed with crab roe and foie gras.

Still, meatballs are, at heart, home cookin'. And though a little old-fashioned time and care is needed to make them properly, they lend themselves to make-ahead and reheat treatments for a weeknight dinner or weekend entertaining. An article in the January Cook's Country magazine detailed how to make meatballs in a slow cooker (form and bake meatballs, cook in a light white sauce, swirl in sour cream, dill and a little shoyu at the last minute).

WHAT MAKES A GREAT MEATBALL?

For Agostini, the secret is the panada, the bread and milk mixture that is the binder in most Italian polpette (pol-PET-tay; meatball) recipes: "It makes the meatballs very light." Italian cooking expert Marcella Hazan doesn't just soak the bread in milk, she heats the two together and beats the mixture to a smooth, light paste.

Carla Magziar, former owner of C&C Pasta who now leads culinary tours of Italy, said the secret is never to overcrowd the pan when browning the meatballs; "small batches are always best," she wrote by e-mail from Calabria, where she is now. Magziar said that, in Italy, meatballs are always made with at least two meats — pork and beef, pork and veal and so on. And everyone has their own recipe. "In the south," she wrote, influenced by northern Africa and Arabia, "meatballs are made with eggplant and lamb, lemon, fresh mozzarella spinach, traditional with pine nuts and tomatoes. The history of meatballs goes back for centuries."

In his classic "The Food of Italy," food historian Waverley Root detailed regional polpette: meatballs made with roast veal and pork; sausage and Spanish beans; meats with chopped cabbage; bacon, cheese and spices; beef and liver; veal with spinach, sage and rosemary; beef and veal with truffles and a half-dozen others.

Meatballs may be served in or over a sauce, in a broth, with pasta, hot or at room temperature.

Over a lunch of lion's head meatballs at Beijing Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Waikiki, KCC's Chau explained that the key to light, smooth meatballs is chopped, not ground meats. And Chinese cooks prefer free-range pork: "The ground pork you find in the supermarket has no flavor," he said.

In making lion's head meatballs, chef Wei of Beijing vigorously chops a mixture of lean and fatty pork (the exact proportion of lean to fat for each type of meatball is outlined in Chinese cookbooks, Chau said). The chopping is a two-step process: First the lean and fat meats are cubed, then mixed and chopped again together, very fast and very fine.

Then the pork is put in a mixing bowl, seasonings are added, and a characteristic technique is employed: The meat paste is repeatedly lifted and slapped against the side of the bowl to distribute the fat and develop a creamy texture. "If you don't do this, it's like hamburger (texture); you don't want that," said Chau, who grew up in a Hong Kong restaurant family.

Lion's head meatballs — which, depending on the cook, range from a soupy braise to a moist meat-over-vegetables presentation - are so-called for symbolic reasons. Meat is masculine and lions are kingly and powerful, so the dish connotes good things, especially for men. The tendrils of cabbage that float in the braise are said to resemble the mane framing the lion's head, a giant meatball. (But take note: numerology is important here. If you're making lion's head meatballs for Chinese New Year, you may present one large meatball to be cut up at the table or any even number of meatballs except four. The word "shi," an approximation of the Mandarin word for four, and "say," the Cantonese word, both rhyme with the respective Chinese word for death or dying, said Chau.)

Traditionally, lion's head meatballs are lightly fried, then placed in a clay casserole dish with Shanghai cabbage and pork or chicken broth, and slowly braised. The chefs at Beijing layer in more flavor by draining the meatballs and frying them again just before serving. Wei explained that if you serve the meatballs from the braising pot, "it will just be steamed, it will have no luster."

Wei also adds interest by preparing freshly wok-braised cabbage as a bed for the meatballs, rather than using the tired, gray cabbage with which it was cooked. Finally, he finishes with a quick stir-fried wok sauce of peanut oil, salt, sugar, chicken powder, oyster sauce, dark soy, sesame oil and cornstarch. At home, a drizzle of soy suffices.

Swedish meatballs are yet another matter, more closely related to Italian polpette in their preparation. The binder is made with fine, white bread crumbs or mashed potatoes and egg. Flavoring comes from ground or finely chopped onions, softened in butter, and spices - nutmeg, allspice, dill, white pepper, caraway. (The Cook's Country recipe uses bread crumbs made from caraway-rye loaves, an interesting idea.)

Contrary to American understanding, Swedish kotbulla are not always served in a sauce. And when they are, the Swedes, like the Italians, don't drown the meat. The classic Swedish preparation makes use of the browning drippings, flour and milk, cream or sour cream. You can also serve the meatballs plain with just a dollop of sour cream for dipping.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.