Combine all the American lamb ingredients until uniformly combined. Roll them into small balls and place them on a wire tray or frog mat that will be placed on the grill/smoker for smoking. 

Cold Smoked Ricotta: This part adds smoke flavor to the ricotta, however, it can be skipped and this recipe is still delicious! If you want to be “Extra”, cold smoking is a great way to add smoke flavor to any dish. Add the ricotta to a large glass bowl covered with plastic wrap. Next, using a smoking gun device (made for cold smoking cocktails or food), add wood chips to create smoke and place the tube into the bowl and secure tightly closed under the saran wrap so that the smoke infuses the ricotta. Keep the plastic wrap closed and let the smoke infuse the ricotta for a few minutes. 

The next step is to put the meatballs on the smoker. Set your smoker to 250 and add wood chips to create smoke. Place your meatballs in your smoker on indirect heat and let them smoke until they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees as the USDA recommends. Once you’ve hit 160, pull the meatballs off the smoker. 

While the meatballs are smoking, it’s time to assemble the tzatziki sauce. This next step requires draining the extra water out of the cucumber so the sauce does not get watery. Grate the cucumbers using a box grater and place the cucumbers in a cheesecloth to extract the water. Squeeze the extra water out a few times before adding the cucumber to the ricotta. Next, grate the lemon zest into the ricotta. Squeeze the juice of the ½ lemon into the ricotta. Add the chopped dill and garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil and mix until combined. Taste to see if you need more salt. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Right before serving, drizzle with remaining olive oil.

Serve the meatballs with grilled bread or pita bread warmed on the grill, sliced cucumbers, and meatballs served with toothpicks for dipping into the smoked tzatziki ricotta. This dish is excellent as a finger food as an appetizer or complete meal, and the leftovers are even better the next day (though there will rarely be leftovers!).