Real Spaghetti & Meatballs

Growing up, one of my favorite meals was my mom’s homemade meatballs. A recipe that was handed down to her from her mother. I haven’t made meatballs in years and was looking forward to trying Ina Garten’s meatball recipe.

Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake selected Barefoot Contessa’s Real Spaghetti and Meatballs as the first Barefoot Bloggers recipe for February.  I made some modifications to the original recipe. We don’t eat pork and the market had no ground veal, so I used half ground beef and half ground chicken. I was also generous with the cheese. I have a cheese addiction. Lastly, I let the sauce simmer for a little longer than the recipe called for to let the flavors develop.

The resultant jumbo-sized meatballs were full of flavor. I wish there had been a little more sauce In my opinion, there was about a cup or 2 too little sauce for the amount of meatballs. The leftovers made a great lunch the next day.

Real Spaghetti & Meatballs (Barefoot Contessa Family Style, page 103)

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup fresh white bread crumbs (4 slices, crusts removed)
• 1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 extra-large egg, beaten
• Vegetable oil
• Olive oil

For the sauce:

• 1 tablespoon good olive oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:

• 1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
• Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs.
2. Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don’t crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don’t clean the pan.
3. For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.
4. Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

Fettucine with Yellow Peppers

After reading the fabulous work of fiction: La Cucina by Lily Prior…I was inspired to cook some Sicilian style pasta. I found a recipe from the cookbook Sicilian Home Cooking by Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene that looked tasty to me AND conveniently enough, I already had most of the ingredients in my cucina.  The pasta was fairly easy to make with the most time consuming steps being roasting the yellow peppers and boiling the fettucine.

I enjoyed the pasta. It was different from most pasta dishes that I I usually make in that the “sauce” was mainly just olive oil with a few seasonings. In my opinion, for the amount of pasta and other ingredients in the pasta, the recipe called for a smidge too much olive oil.  Next time I might try adding shrimp or chicken to give it a little protein and make it more appeal ling to my husband who for whatever reason seems to be of the opinion that pasta without meat or seafood is like a sin against nature. 

Check out the Cook The Books Roundup for the dishes that others were inspired to whip up after reading La Cucina.

Fettucine with Yellow Peppers (from Sicilian Home Cooking)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 large yellow bell peppers
• 3 fresh tomatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 1/3 cup freshly chopped basil
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 cup diced smoked pecorino cheese
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 pound fettucine

DIRECTIONS

Heat the broiler. Broil the peppers on a piece of aluminum foil on rack about 5 inches from the heat source, turning occasionally, until the skin has blackened all over.

Place the peppers in a brown paper bag. Close the bag securely and let the peppers rest for 5 minutes.

Remove the peppers. When cool enough to handle, remove the stem ends, seeds, and any white membrane. Cut the peppers into thin strips and put into a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, capers, basil, fennel, pecorino, and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss. Set aside.

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Stir in the fettucine and cook until al dente, stirring often.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of hot pasta water. Add the pasta to the sauce in the bowl and toss, adding a little hot pasta water if necessary. Taste for seasoning. Serve hot.

Cooking: Tequila Shrimp Pasta with Tomato-Cream Sauce

I found this recipe while leafing through the Williams-Sonoma Savoring Pasta & Rice cookbook. It sounded unique and I just had to try it. Who can resist boozy pasta?!?! *hic*

In total it took me about an hour and a half to make the pasta. A majority of that time was spent roasting the tomatoes for an hour. But, in the end all that time was worth it.  I loved the way the citrus juice flavor combined with the tomatoes and chipotle peppers.  My husband declared this pasta as “best and a half!”

I will definitely keep this recipe in my repertoire.

(click “more” for the recipe)

What’s Cooking: Pasta with Shrimp, Spinach & Tomatoes

Mr. Me requested shrimp pasta for dinner… so I went out to the garden to pick some tomatoes and basil. I had found a recipe for Penne with Shrimp, Tomatoes and Basil on epicurious.com that I modified a bit based on our tastes (read as: more garlic and red pepper).

The tomatoes and basil I picked from our garden and used in the pasta.