Meatball madness

• Getting in: Now, if only you can manage to find a seat at the large communal table that runs the length of the dining room (there’s also bar seating and a handful of small tables). No reservations are taken, so your best bet may be lunch. (The restaurant takes a break from 4 to 5 p.m., Friday to Sunday.) Well, at least there’s always takeout.

The Meatball Shop, 84 Stanton St.; 212-982-8895

Meatballs like Mama used to make

You’ll find Sunday night meatballs on the menu at hip Italian restaurants such as Hearth, but none may be as soul satisfying as the ones being served by chef Jason Zukas at Charles in the West Village. His new Sunday dinner menu features a star-studded lineup of Italian-American classics, including rigatoni with Sunday gravy, which starts simmering around noon. Rich with meatballs (a classic mix of ground veal, pork and beef) and sweet Italian sausage, the gravy is deep in color and flavor. The resulting plate of rigatoni is amply sauced and served with a scoop of herbed ricotta, a link of sausage and two large, intensely meaty rounds ($21). “This is what my family ate every Sunday,” says Queens-born Zukas.

Helayne Seidman

Japanese balls and beer

Photos: Meatball madness

Charles, 234 W. 4th St.; 212-206-1208

Meat with, ahem, balls

Chef Cesare Casella first whipped up his duck meatballs stuffed with pecorino fresco at last year’s Meatball Madness competition at the NYC Wine & Food Festival. We declared them our favorite, so we were happy to learn that they’ve recently made it onto the Friday night menu at his Upper West Side tapas spot Salumeria Rosi. For his duck meatballs ($11; available March 26), Casella grinds the whole bird — including innards — to produce a dish with rich complexity. Casella, who frequently experiments with new meatball recipes, almost always uses the whole animal: His lamb meatballs, on the menu Friday, have even been known to contain a little, um, male organ meat. But the easily squeamish should take note: “It’s not something you taste, like ‘this is pepper or salt,’ ” laughs the chef.

Salumeria Rosi, 283 Amsterdam Ave.; 212-877-4800

Cambodian-style meatballs

Chef-owner Ratha Chaupoli has been experimenting with meatballs for some time now, first at his Cambodian restaurant Kampuchea and now at his Union Square sandwich shop Num Pang, which celebrates its one-year anniversary this month. “I’m infatuated with meatballs,” says Chaupoli, who brings Asian flair to the Italian meatball by throwing jasmine rice, Thai basil and hoisin sauce into the meaty mix, and stewing the result in tomatoes. He’s made his meatballs with pork, duck and now veal. Served on a baguette with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro and chili mayo ($6.75), the sandwich features a lively interplay of salty, sweet, sour and hot flavors. Back at Kampuchea, Chaupoli has an even cooler trick: He wraps the same meatball around an egg yolk, which oozes out when broken with a fork. “It’s like eating an egg within an egg,” says Chauopoli of the $11 dish, which must be ordered in advance.

Num Pang Sandwich Shop, 21 E. 12th St.; 212-255-3271

Balls with a Korean kick

Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park is emerging as a dining destination thanks to the arrival of eateries like Purple Yam, a modern-looking Filipino/Pan-Asian restaurant with a wide-ranging menu. Developed by Korean kitchen staffer Haegeen Kim, the $9 Korean meatball sandwich is rich, spicy and gloriously messy. A mix of ground pork, chopped kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage), ginger, garlic, scallions, diced carrots, sesame oil and salt, the meatballs are fried then finished in sweet pepper sauce and served on a purple yam flour roll with julienne carrots, jicama, cucumber, lettuce and sesame seeds ($9).

Purple Yam, 1314 Cortelyou Rd., Ditmas Park, Brooklyn; 718-940-8188

Meatballs straight off the farm

Blue Ribbon Bakery specializes in simple, well-executed American and French fare — steak tartare, fried chicken, endive and watercress salad — so when it comes to menu specials, chef Sefton Stallard likes to get creative. He often gets whole animals delivered from small farms in Vermont, and sometimes those goats, rabbits and pigs get turned into meatballs. His latest creation is an earthy dish of rabbit and veal meatballs served with sweet potato gnocchi, Brussels sprouts and a rich sauce made from white wine, veal-and-rabbit stock and cream ($15). Old-fashioned veal kidneys, a classic dish not frequently seen on today's restaurant menus, lend a touch of gaminess to the lean yet flavorful rounds. "When you buy product from these smaller farms you want to use everything from the animal," says Stallard. The restaurant plans to have the meatballs on special this week.

Blue Ribbon Bakery, 35 Downing St.; 212-337-0404

Sweetballs!

Two kid-friendly trends collide in the new $5 "Spaghetti & Meatballs" cupcake from Ruthy's, which looks remarkably (or perhaps disturbingly) lifelike. But one bite instantly removes all doubt. Thankfully, these meatballs are sweet — they're actually made from dense red velvet cake enrobed in strawberry gel and served on top of sponge cake and squiggles of buttercream frosting. Already, it's proving to be a top seller in a shop known for crazy cupcake concoctions topped with "French fries," "sushi" and more.

Ruthy's, Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Ave.; 212-463-8800