Meatballs all grown up...

These updated recipes would still make mama proud.

At 6 years old, I had reason to believe my mother’s spaghetti and meatballs was the most marvelous culinary achievement ever created. Never mind that I had rarely strayed from her kitchen table.

It was all I knew, my favorite dish. I remember how the noodles glistened with the orange slickness of tomato and oil; the exotic thrill of garlic and oregano; the texture of the beefy meatballs, so tender and springy to the bite.

I felt so special when Mama made spaghetti and meatballs for my birthday.

Little did I know that kids all over America were eating virtually the same recipe, most likely found on the side of a Mueller’s spaghetti box.

This easy family supper required little more than browning balls of seasoned ground beef, then returning them to the skillet to finish simmering in red sauce while a pot of water puffed with the steam of boiling pasta.

Mama would drain the noodles, dump them into a big yellow Pyrex mixing bowl, and toss in the sauced meatballs. We’d eat it with salad and garlic bread, passing the green cardboard cylinder of Kraft grated Parmesan cheese. Fancy! This was the mid-’60s. I mean, everybody did this, right? Not anymore, kiddo. Today’s grown-up meatballs come in all flavors (pork, turkey, chicken, veal, lamb, duck, or a combination). They are tucked into sandwiches; spooned over polenta and pasta of all varieties; drizzled with marinara and eaten as a snack; or patted into jumbo orbs that resemble petite meatloaves.

While meatballs have gone gourmet, they’ve gotten a bit healthier, too, based on the recipes I gathered from some of the city’s best Italian chefs.

They are often baked — rather than fried like our mamas and grandmas did. They can be gluten-free — instead of binded with breadcrumbs. And they can be studded with veggies — along with the meat.

Linda Harrell, chef and partner at Cibo e Beve Italian Kitchen & Bar on Roswell Road, might well be the queen of the Atlanta meatball scene. In 2014, as part of Taste of Atlanta, Harrell hosted The Atlanta Meatball Festival, which included a “battle of the balls” competition. By the second year, more than 20 restaurants were involved.

Harrell’s customers are crazy about her classic pork, veal and beef meatballs, which she serves with marinara and a dollop of ricotta. But she also has diners with dietary restrictions, which led her to create a gluten-free chicken meatball. Instead of breadcrumbs, she uses instant mashedpotato flakes. To keep the balls from drying out in the oven, she pours a little liquid into the pan. Plump and juicy, the results are heavenly.

Inspired by a recent trip to Tuscany, Craig Richards, the executive chef at Buckhead’s tony St. Cecilia, sent me a recipe for a pork-and-beef meatball so unctuous and moist it hardly needs a sauce. What’s his secret? Shrooms! While porcinis would be the authentic mushroom of choice, they can be expensive and hard to come by. “I would suggest finding the best fresh mushroom

available and using them in this recipe,” Richards says. During my three test runs, I had great luck with various combinations of portobellos, oyster mushrooms, king trumpets, even common white buttons.

Richards grinds the mushrooms so that they have a crumbly texture akin to meat and mix well with the other ingredients. Baked at high temp, they caramelize and crisp up nicely, too.

Mike Perez, executive chef at Colletta in Alpharetta, has a show-stopper of a meatball. To the classic formula of meat, breadcrumb and egg, he adds a lavish scoop of ricotta and ParmigianoReggiano, plus a ton of fresh herbs.

His technique is different, too.

First he infuses milk and cream with the herbs and aromatics, then adds the cheese, egg and breadcrumbs to form a mush. (“We call this ‘the schtick,’ ” Perez told me. “Not sure why. That’s just what we started calling it and it stuck.”)

After letting the schtick sit a while so the flavors mingle, he works in pork and beef; pats out hefty, 3-ounce balls; and bakes them “low and slow” in a bath of pureed San Marzanos. The drippings ooze into the tomatoes to create a lovely sauce.

For his signature Colletta appetizer, Perez serves the meatballs over creamy polenta. The dazzlingly rich, wow-worthy dish is a long way from the meatballs of my youth. But the next time you have a meatball craving and an afternoon to spend on supper, give them a try.

Mama would be mighty impressed.

PHOTO BY CHRIS HUNT / SPECIAL Pictured are Craig Richards’ Tuscan-Inspired Mushroom Meatballs. Richards, the executive chef at St. Cecilia in Buckhead, gave us this recipe for meatballs made with ground pork, ground beef and mushrooms. His top choice for shrooms is porcinis, but...