Recipes

[Chicagoan]

Saw this recipe by Jeff Mauro on the Kitchen today, looked so good and simple meatballs...

MEATBALLS AND MARINARA... jeff mauro   

Rule of thumb... 1 to 1 ratios... 1 lb ground meat, 1 slice of bread, 1 egg

Meatballs:

1 slice bread
Milk, for soaking the bread
1 pound ground meat (beef, pork and veal)
1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
Handful fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Big pinch of kosher salt
Big pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten
Olive oil, for frying

Marinara Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Two 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh basil, for garnish

Cooked pasta, for serving

Directions
For the meatballs: Put the bread in a small bowl and add just enough milk to cover. Let soak for 5 minutes.
Add the meat, cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, egg and soaked bread to a large bowl and mix lightly with your hands; do not overwork.

Form the mixture into balls and place on a baking sheet.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add a healthy drizzle of olive oil. Working in batches, fry the meatballs in the skillet until all sides are golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Set aside.

For the marinara sauce:

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the Italian seasoning and onions and sweat the onions until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, then add the tomatoes and meatballs, bring to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and garnish with fresh basil.

Serve the meatballs and marinara over your favorite pasta.

[IamMrsG]

@Chicagoan   DH and I watched it, too, and DH commented that his sauce looked thin.  Also, I add toasted fennel to meatballs. 

[Brooklynny]

I make my meatballs and sauce just about the same way (my mother's recipe).  I add one minced garlic clove to the meat, and I use an equal amount of Romano and Parmiggiano Reggiano.  I fry in canola.  I get six meatballs from one pound of meat.

For the sauce, I omit the garlic and dried Italian seasoning.  I don't combine marinara with meatballs.  When the sauce is about half way done, I toss in a nice handful of fresh basil, and then finish cooking the meatballs in the sauce itself to ensure thorough cooking all the way through.  The rest is the same.

Just an aside, in Italy meatballs are not served on top of, or on the same plate with, the pasta.  It's considered a second course with salad.  Serving them together is an American thing but very popular nonetheless.

[Chicagoan]

@IamMrsG... I am going to try his meatballs, I also found on-line his meatball sandwich.  I love a good meatball sandwich. 

[Ms X]

I've never heard of making meatballs from beef, pork, and veal.  That's a very interesting twist.  I don't make my own tomato sauce, but the Italian ladies I grew up with simmered the sauce for hours.  My great-grandmother was from Italy, and I remember seeing and smelling the tomato sauce already cooking on the stove during the morning hours.  I was surprised to see that he recommended only 30 minutes.  I'm not sure what accounts for the discrepancy, but he certainly knows what he's doing.

[Chicagoan]

@Ms X.. I wonder if that is a Chicago thing, I grew up in Chicago's Little Italy and the three ground meats were always used, also used in meatloaf.

[Chicagoan]

@Brooklynny... do you use the three ground meats also, just wondering if it is a Chicago thing?  @Ms X had never heard of using 3 different meat.  Our grocery stores even sell the beef, veal and pork packaged together in equal parts.

[Ms X]

---

@chicagoan wrote:

@Ms X.. I wonder if that is a Chicago thing, I grew up in Chicago's Little Italy and the three ground meats were always used, also used in meatloaf.

---

@Chicagoan  Maybe that's it.  It sounds delicious!  I've never seen the three ground meats in supermarkets here.  I'm not much of a cook, but I'd probably give them a try.  I love Italian food.

[Brooklynny]

@Chicagoan, I guess it depends on what region of Italy the recipe comes from, OR it just might be an Italian-American thing as many recipes morph into over time.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, no one in Italy would serve meatballs and pasta together.  It's just not done.  But it is here, hence it's a morphed Italian-American way to serve the dish.  In Italy, you would never add Parmesan cheese to a fish dish or to linguine with clam sauce -- that would be a sacrilege -- but I have seen that here.  

My mother occasionally used beef and veal, but most of the time only beef, as I do now.  I don't feel it adds anything special to the finished product.  Some people do use all three.  I'm not sure why, but taking a guess, using veal might make the beef more tender.  Personally, I think pork is rather bland, so I don't know why it would be added.

Just my take on it.

[Ms X]

---

@Brooklynny wrote:

@Chicagoan, I guess it depends on what region of Italy the recipe comes from, OR it just might be an Italian-American thing as many recipes morph into over time.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, no one in Italy would serve meatballs and pasta together.  It's just not done.  But it is here, hence it's a morphed Italian-American way to serve the dish.  In Italy, you would never add Parmesan cheese to a fish dish or to linguine with clam sauce -- that would be a sacrilege -- but I have seen that here.  

My mother occasionally used beef and veal, but most of the time only beef, as I do now.  I don't feel it adds anything special to the finished product.  Some people do use all three.  I'm not sure why, but taking a guess, using veal might make the beef more tender.  Personally, I think pork is rather bland, so I don't know why it would be added.

Just my take on it.

---

Very interesting, @Brooklynny.  I checked on this and found that you are right.  There's a loophole, though, in that in Naples (where my grandmother was born) they serve small meatballs on pasta (not spaghetti, though).  I remember growing up eating the most delicious tomato sauce with meat in it instead of meatballs.  It was so rich it was a blackish-red.  These were cooked by older Italian-American ladies.  I never thought much of it, but maybe this is another dish passed down from their mothers from their home country.  It's interesting that pasta with meat or meatballs is a first course in Italy.  I guess it evolved into a main dish in the USA.  I'm glad it did because it was my favorite meal from about age 3.

I found this at a blog:

1. Don’t ask for “fettuccine alfredo” or “spaghetti with meatballs”

They don’t exist here. Alfredo is an Italian name, and when I asked my Florentine friends if they really had never heard of “fettuccine alfredo,” they responded: “Chi?” (Who?) To get pasta with cream sauce, try any one with panna (cream) listed in the ingredients – just know that you’ll never find pollo (chicken), on that same list. Explaining the idea of putting chicken in pasta provokes confused looks and expressions like, “Che schifo!“ (How disgusting!) Likewise, spaghetti is not served with meatballs. In Naples, you’ll find miniature ones on other types of pasta. Everywhere else, pasta al ragù (with meat sauce) is a common first course, and “polpette” (meatballs), are a typical – separate – second course. If you’re way ahead of me and already thinking, “I’ll just ask for both those things and mix them together,” you can certainly do that. But…reread the title of this article first.

http://blog.studentsville.it/top-10-tips/everyday-life/10-rules-for-eating-in-italy-without-scaring-...