Sunday, Finely we had Spaghetti and meatballs

We were supposed to have company Saturday evening; the weatherman announced at least 2 “ of snow. I started dinner which was on the cover of this month’s Bon Appétit, i.e., Spaghetti and Meatballs All’Amatriciana. This was an interesting way to make Sauce and Meatballs and it smelled divine. This is one dish that you can hold or freeze, as the flavors will just get better and better. After making the meatballs (50) I looked at the serving amount and discovered it serves 8. No problem; whatever we have left, I will freeze for a class night or when my trainer works me to death.


Meatballs:

6oz. uncured apple wood-smoked bacon, diced

2 large garlic cloves

2# ground beef. I never use ground beef from the store anymore. If you want to know why, rent the movie Food Inc. I bought rib-eye steak and ground it myself.

2/3 c chopped, drained roasted red pepper from a jar.

2/3 c panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

2 large eggs

½ cup coarsely grated onion (I used ½ onion)

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

1T minced fresh marjoram

2t dried crushed red pepper

½ t kosher salt

½ t black pepper

If you noticed, the roasted peppers, onions, bacon all have you chopping and dicing. I put my meat grinder attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer and ran it all through with the beef I was grinding. So now all the beef, onion, pepper and bacon, is in a big bowl to which I add the remaining ingredients. There is no way to combine all this without using your hands. For this I get out a pair of throw away sterile latex gloves that I buy in the drug store. Don the gloves and mix, toss the gloves. The recipe says let sit for 15 minutes. During this time I cleaned up the mess I had made and put 2 cans of diced tomato with 2 large garlic cloves in the blender and turned it on to puree as needed for the sauce. After 15 minutes you are to make meatballs of approximately 2 T or 1- 1/2” dia. Now if I was Martha, I would have a 1 ½“ ice cream scoop that would make this a lot easier. Since I am not, I just took a large spoon out of the drawer and eyeballed it. I also donned a new set of latex gloves as I had to shape the 2 T of meat into 1- ½” dia. meatballs. I ended up with 50 meat balls. These were placed on a large cookie sheet that I covered in plastic wrap.

Next you take another 6 ounces of the bacon, cut in strips cross wise and cook in a large pot until crisp. I used a 14” skillet. Remove the bacon to a small plate or bowl. To the bacon fat add 1T of olive oil and start cooking the meatballs. I am not sure what size pan the BA cooks had, but with my huge 14 “skillet, I had to cook in 4 batches. Remember, Julia says do not crowd the pan. Each batch was 9 minutes at a fairly low setting. You do not want to burn the outside and have the inside raw. The idea is to cook them through.

Sauce:

After you finish cooking all the meatballs, you place them on a second tray that I lined with stick proof aluminum foil. Then I added 3 c of diced onions and 1 ½ t of dried crushed red pepper to the pan and cooked for 6 minutes. To this add 2 c of white wine and boil for 8 minutes. Make sure the white wine you use is drinkable. This was indeed drinkable; I personally attest to that. Next add the puréed tomato/garlic mixture and 1 T diced fresh marjoram to the pan. Boil for 8 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and add back the bacon.

This was Saturday, and at this point I stopped as our guests were not coming because of the increasing snow storm and icy roads. We cooled it all and refrigerated it. We ended up with 6 to 8 “of snow depending where you lived.

Our guests came today, Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 4:30 PM. I put about 1/3 of the meatballs in the freezer and cooked 1# of organic whole wheat pasta for the sauce with another T of marjoram and salt added to the water. We started with antipasto of 2 different Italian sausages, Snow White Goat cheddar cheese and Ricotta Salata. Also included in the hors d’ oeuvres were Nicoise olives, artichokes, and Viansa tomato basil spread. Un-Italian, but we had pate with black peppercorns also. This was all served on butter garlic crostini from Wegman’s. Jim offered a 2003 Grosso Sanese Chianti Classico and a 2003 Viansa Thalia (Sangiovese) to accompany the antipasto.

We ate family style. I cut wedges of ice berg lettuce. I made Green Goddess Dressing using a mix from Penzey’s Spices and Greek yoghurt. I chopped Campari tomatoes to sprinkle over the dressing. I made large crostini with garlic and olive oil to accompany the spaghetti.

Both Mike and Jim said that the meatballs and spaghetti were very spicy hot. I thought it was fine, but if you are subject to hot, reduce the amount of dried hot pepper. However, keep in mind that I make my crushed dried hot pepper from whole hot peppers that I buy in the Chinese grocery. I thought of cutting back but felt the quantity of product could handle it. I had no problem with the hotness, but the others thought it was too hot. This recipe indeed feeds 8, especially as we had hors d’oeuvres and a salad. We have 2 servings leftover for us on a weeknight and additional meatballs. So if you are only having 4 and one of the 4 is Jim, you will be ok to cut this recipe in half. Jim served a 2001 Aglieta Brunello di Montalcino with this course.

For dessert I coated half of each biscotti that I bought at Wegman’s with homemade fudge sauce. I should have made the Biscotti; Wegman’s were crumbly. We served this with chocolate Ice cream and a 2003 Apollonio Copertino (70% Negroamaro, 15% Montepulciano, 15% Black Malvasia). Jim likes red wine with his chocolate.