Meatballs, Because I Felt Like It

I read a quote in Food and Wine magazine recently from esteemed chef Corey Lee, former Chef de Cuisine at the legendary French Laundry and current chef/owner of San Francisco’s Benu. When asked about food trends he dislikes, Lee had this to say:

“These days, every chef at every level feels like they need to tell a story with their food. You know what? Sometimes food doesn’t need a story. Sometimes those stories aren’t that interesting–it becomes very contrived.”

I definitely agree with Lee on this one. Whenever I watch the Food Network (a channel that I have ever-increasing ambivalence toward), the host will eventually come to a spot where he or she is doing some simple task that would otherwise mean dead air, but never fails to fill it with a story that inevitably starts, “You know, my [insert relative] would always make this dish for us…” or “You know, what makes this dish so great/easy/etc. is [insert helpful tip]…” And so, these shows that are meant to seem intimate, conversational and spontaneous instead come off as downright formulaic.

And if anyone has ever watched the show “Next Food Network Star,” the first thing they want to know about the contestants is their “culinary point-of-view.” Now, I understand why this is important for a television network looking for the host of a certain kind of show that will be marketed to a certain demographic. However, it feels like the prevalence of these shows where everyone has a story behind every dish has created an unrealistic expectation amongst viewers, as well as diners.

Sometimes, you just want to make and/or eat a dish because you like it, simple as that. With this in mind, today I was in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs. No reason. Just ‘cause. So I found a recipe from–where else?–the Food Network show “Bobby Flay’s Throwdown.” Now, I could do a whole other post voicing my opinions on that show (talk about contrived…) but I will say, those recipes–supposedly the country’s best iterations of a given dish–look damn good. In my take on Mike Maroni’s Throwdown-winning recipe, beef meatballs are lightened up with panko breadcrumbs and grated Pecorino Romano, oven-roasted until brown and oozing cheese, then braised in a light, garlicky tomato sauce before being served over spaghetti.

And did anyone at our dinner table feel like they missed out due to a lack of an accompanying story? Not sure, really. Their mouths were full…

…of cheesy, beefy goodness, that is

Grandma Maroni’s Meatballs

Adapted from a recipe by Mike Maroni 

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 min. (40 min. active)

Yields: 4-6 Servings

Ingredients:

Meatballs

• Olive Oil
• 1 lb. ground beef chuck
• 1 1/2 cups grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 1 1/4 cups panko bread crumbs
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, minced
• 1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
• 1/2 large Spanish onion, grated
• 3 T. garlic, minced
• Kosher salt, to taste

Sauce

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 12 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 large Spanish onion, diced
• 2 (28-oz.) cans whole San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 handful fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

• 1 lb. spaghetti, cooked al dente

Method

• For meatballs: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil
• With your hands, mix the beef, cheese, bread crumbs, eggs, milk , herbs, onion, garlic, and salt in a large bowl

• Roll the meatballs loosely, a bit larger than a golf ball and place on the prepared baking sheet. Roast until cooked through, 35-40 minutes

• For sauce: Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and onion. Cook until soft and lightly browned, 5-10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper, and stir. Bring sauce to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes, crushing tomatoes with back of a wooden spoon as they cook

• To finish: Add meatballs to sauce, stirring gently until submerged. Cover and simmer for an hour. Remove from heat and stir in basil. Plate spaghetti, then top with meatballs and sauce. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese

Rainy Day Italian

I don’t come from an Italian-American family. In fact, I don’t think there’s a drop of Italian blood in us. One of our favorite recipes growing up was chicken cacciatore (chicky-catch, for fellow Parks & Rec fans) from a recipe featured on a can of Del Monte tomatoes. Our lasagnas were made with jarred pasta sauce and no-boil noodles. You get the picture.

And I never really felt like I was missing out until recently. It seems like in the past few years there’s been a growing sense of been-there, done-that as far as the whole healthy, “modern” California-American cuisine (the countless orders of bruschetta and tirimisu I’ve eaten over the years have long since started bleeding into each other in my memory). What’s come out of this culinary angst has been, among other things, a resurgence in popularity of Italian-American cuisine. Rather than seeking the finest imported San Marzano tomatoes or Italian pasta, Italian-American cooks are now embracing the dishes their grandparents made, with ingredients made here in America, like Polly-O ricotta and Progresso bread crumbs.

And it seems like whenever I turn on the Food Network or Travel Channel, or pick up a food mag, there’s a feature on how to make the best spaghetti and meatballs or chicken parmesan. Sure, some of these obvious dishes–the ones that come to mind to non-Italians like me–can seem as ho-hum as yet another bland, white restaurant panna cotta. That’s what I thought, anyway, until I saw this recipe for braciole from The Soup Addict.

Braciole (pronounced “brajole” in the Sicilian dialect typical of East Coast Italian-Americans) is a dish of top round steak rolled around a filling of cheese, mushrooms and breadcrumbs, simmered in marinara sauce until fall-apart tender. Now, I’m not a fan in general of roulade-type dishes, as I think both the rolls and the stuffing can often get too dry, but given that they’d be essentially soaking in a bath of tomato and red wine all afternoon, it sounded promising. And, it just so happened I had a big ziploc bag of frozen gnocchi–comfort food in their own right– that I’d made a few weeks ago, and that I thought would go great with the tender yet still toothsome beef, soft filling, and rich sauce.

In short, I have a new favorite Italian dish. I could have eaten this dish with a spoon, it was so tender (and you will want one to get every last drop of the sauce), and I was extremely tempted to just eat the filling plain as soon as I finished cooking it, since it’s basically comprised entirely of other comfort foods like cheese and sauteed mushrooms. And it makes your house smell amazing all day, giving you the added bonus of free aromatherapy (I’ll take the smell of garlic and tomato over lavender and ylang-ylang any day). My advice: save this one for a lazy, rainy weekend and get help from a family member to make the work go faster, like I did. At the end of the day, you will be rewarded with a bowl of comfort, Italian-American style.

Following is the recipe as listed on The Soup Addict, with my comments added:

Braciole

Prep Time: 40 minutes Cook time: 3 hours Yield: 4 generous servings * We had enough to make two dinners’ worth for three adults (including gnocchi and roasted broccoli).

Ingredients Sauce: Extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, finely diced

Pinch crushed red pepper flakes

Kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, smashed and finely chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup red wine

1 (28 or 32-ounce) can crushed San Marzano tomatoes (or pass whole tomatoes through the food mill)

2 cups water

Beef rolls & stuffing:

Extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup finely diced pancetta

1 large onion, finely diced

Kosher salt

Pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup Italian-style bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

2 cloves garlic, smashed and finely chopped

4 ounces button or cremini mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup grated provolone

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 1/2 pounds top round, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (about 12) * At my butcher’s counter, they didn’t have top round, so I instead used slices of London broil. This works fine, but I sliced each piece in half width-wise so that the meat only rolled around the stuffing once.

Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish

Instructions

Sauce: Coat a large sauce pan with olive oil and heat over medium until shimmering. Add the onions, crushed red pepper and a pinch of salt. Sweat the onions until they are glassy, about 7 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and red wine, and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and 2 cups of water – season with salt to taste.When the sauce begins to bubble, reduce the heat to medium-low and partially cover with a lid.

For the beef rolls: Coat a large saute pan with olive oil, add the pancetta and bring the pan to a medium heat. Cook the pancetta until it gets brown and crispy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the onions and crushed red pepper and toss to incorporate with the pancetta. Season with salt, to taste. Cook the onions until they are soft and very aromatic, about 7 to 8 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, in a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs with the milk, stirring well until the milk has been absorbed. Set aside.

Add the garlic to the pan with the pancetta and onion and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute until soft and have let off their moisture, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat. Add the onion/mushroom mixture to the reserved bread and stir to combine. Add the provolone and Parmigiano-Reggiano, and stir to combine. Taste to make sure that the mixture is delicious and season with salt, to taste, if needed. Set aside.

If necessary, lay the beef slices between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and gently pound with a meat mallet to flatten and even out. Put about 2 heaping tablespoons of filling on one end of each of the beef slices and roll up. Secure the rolls with kitchen string or toothpicks. Repeat this process with the remaining beef and filling.

Coat a large, wide pot with olive oil and put over medium-high heat. Season the beef rolls lightly with salt and brown them on all sides. As each roll finishes browning, add it to the tomato sauce, spoon sauce over the roll to coat. (Depending on the size of your pan, you will likely have to brown the rolls in batches.)

When all the rolls are in the tomato sauce, bring the sauce to a gentle boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Partially cover the pot again, and allow to cook about 2 1/2 hours. Spoon sauce over the rolls occasionally, if they’re sticking out of the sauce. The beef rolls will be very, very tender at the end of cooking. Remove the string or toothpicks before serving. To serve, arrange 2 or 3 braciole on each serving plate (or, optional, slice each roll into 1″ spirals). Spoon on some of the sauce and garnish with Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Try not to drool directly on your keyboard…