Meatballs & Sauce (Home Made)

Over Linquini

Ok, its Meatballs and Sauce day at Café Martin(my kitchen):  Every once in a while, I get in the mood to make some really good Meatballs and Sauce.  I don’t buy sauce in a jar, except on rare occasions when I’m lazy.  Now this is not quick, (takes about 5 hours) so don’t faint from exhaustion, save it for a day when you have other things to do around the house, but it is easy and well worth the effort.  In this blog I am going to point out what I call “Kitchen Essential Appliances”, and will so note where appropriate.  Fresh ingredients are always best, but this effort is a mixture of both, because it’s hard to keep fresh on hand without it spoiling, unless you have a high volume household, which I do not.  Some things, for example tomatoes are from a can.  Use fresh herbs if you have them, but double the amount if fresh.  Fresh Parsley however is a must. 

I grind my own beef for Meatballs

The one thing I absolutely don’t know how I ever did without, is my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer.  For the Meatballs I grind my own beef (whatever happens to be on sale), with the grinder attachment.  For the meatballs this time I used a London broil cut, which was a $1.00 cheaper than already ground beef.  I also know that my ground meat does not have any “Pink Slime as Filler”.  While you work, clean up as you go, it might only take a hot scald under water now, (I keep a little gadget that has a brush and dish soap inside on the sink, which I consider a Kitchen Essential Appliance). It will be a lot of soaking, soap, water and time later, if you don't.  On my PC I organize my recipes with Microsoft Office’s One Note, Sometimes I print them to a PDF and put them up in the cloud in “dropbox”, where I can get at them from anywhere, and the really good ones I put on my Android HTC Thunderbolt, PDA phone.   I have an app called “Digital Recipe”, which allow me to import, export and re-scale the recipe's.   I think the app is available for the iphone as well, but now I am a little off topic.  I will save the merits of technology for a future blog.

Meat Balls: (Makes about 24 golf ball size meatballs)

(Pre-heat oven to 350) (Grease a cookie sheet)

Recipe:

1 pound ground beef (grind your own but buy if you must)

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup Panko Bread Crumbs (use Italian if you must but if you try panko you will never use any other bread crumbs.  Panko Bread Crumbs are in the same area of the supermarket, but are Japanese bread crumbs)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (kosher salt has larger flakes, rather than cubic crystals.  Yes it is more expensive. It will make everything brown nicer.  I use kosher salt for everything except baking.  Do not use for baking.) 

1 teaspoon of oregano

1 teaspoon Herb de Provence (see my London Broil Blog to make your own)

1 tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley (If you are going to use dry than don’t take the trouble to make these meatballs, buy them in your grocery freezer) Fresh parsley will keep about 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

3 cloves of freshly grated Garlic

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Now it’s time to get your clean hands dirty. In a bowl (I have a stack set of stainless steel bowls, I consider indispensable Kitchen Essential Appliances) Mix well, all of the ingredients except the egg and milk with your hands, then add the milk and eggs and incorporate well until absorbed by the crumbs.  The mixture will hold together very nicely at this point.  Next make your balls.  I use a 1 ½ inch small ice cream scoop to do this (another Kitchen Essential Appliance which I use for a ton of things besides this, e.g. Macaroons, cookies, pastry, presentation etc.) I use the scoop, here, mainly for uniform measuring.  Roll each ball in the palms of your hands and then lay on a greased cooking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.  Take out of the oven and set aside until ready to use.

Bake Meatballs 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Meat Sauce:

For this you will need a 12 inch x 2 inch deep Cast Iron Skillet (another Kitchen Essential Appliance, I have a set of 4, i.e. a  6, 8, 10 and 12 inch, which I use for everything from making eggs, roasting a chicken to baking a pie.  The perfect stove top to oven essential. The reason I use a cast iron skillet here, is for several reasons; even heat, works in the oven too, maintains a good simmer, has a large evaporation area and it’s easy to clean){also see note at the end about cooking in iron}

Recipe: (makes about 3 1/2 cups of sauce after meatballs are removed)

24 Meatballs (If you are just making a meat sauce and not adding meatballs then use 1 pound of ground beef cooked on medium high heat, in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Break up with a wooden spoon and cook the ground beef until all the water is out and you are left with a browned caramelized crumble of beef.  There is a lot of water in a pound of beef, this will take a while)

2 cans 28oz whole peeled tomatoes (I buy a lot when on sale, like 12 for $7.99 and always whole peeled, then I can cut, dice or puree as needed)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

1 medium green bell pepper chopped

My Slap Chop, Microplane and the fineness of chop

(Ok, I have to mention another one of my Kitchen essential appliance the “slap chop” easy to clean and saves my fingers)

3 cloves minced garlic (I have a microplane for this purpose)

1 teaspoon basil

1 pinch of allspice (you could substitute 1/4 teaspoon each of ground clove and cinnamon)

1 teaspoon of Herb de Provence (see London Broil Blog for how to make, you can buy this, however)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup burgundy wine

1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 tablespoon tomato paste (I buy this in a tube and then can squeeze a small quantity when I want to, without wasting a whole can)

1 bay leaf

Ingredients in the skillet then use the Immersion Blender

Directions:

Add all of the ingredients except the bay leaf and meatballs to a 12 inch x 2 inch cast iron skillet (if using ground meat instead of meatballs it can remain in the skillet).  Now comes one of the most useful gadgets I have ever owned and certainly at the top of my “Kitchen Essential Appliances” list, i.e., the immersion blender, these are not expensive and I use it to make everything from puddings, whipped cream, sauces like hollandaise, salad dressings, to just plain stirring. Not a day goes buy I don’t use it for something and it’s very easy to clean). 

When meatballs are added the skillet will be almost full

Mix everything in the skillet with an immersion blender. (Do not over puree you just want to break up the whole tomatoes and mix the ingredients).  Bring everything to a hard boil on high heat then carefully add the meatballs (meat already in pan if you didn’t make meatballs).  Don't forget to add the pan drippings from the meatballs.   Add the bay leaf.  Bring to a hard boil again then reduce the heat to low.  Simmer for 3 to 3 ½ hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.  It should be noted that the goal here is to reduce the sauce volume by 1/3, while keeping the meat balls covered, however I usually have to add about 2 cups of water every hour, to keep from reducing too rapidly.  You will have to judge this. The sauce is done on the 3^rd reduction and will be thickened considerably and the color will have darkened. At this point, remove the bay leaf and use  the sauce for whatever you made the sauce for or let cool and then put 4 meatballs and ladle 1/2 cup of sauce (for 1 portion) into 1 quart freezer bags and freeze for future use.

Note! Sometimes I double or Triple the recipe and use a crockpot instead of the stove top.  If using a crock pot I cook on high for an hour and then on low for 14 or more hours, the longer the better the sauce. Enjoy

Simmer to Reduce Volume by 1/3.  Sauce will thicken and darken (bag and freeze)

Cast Iron:

A few words about cooking in Cast Iron: While it is true that cooking in iron will impart significant iron into your food, especially with acidic foods like tomatoes and apples.  Whether or not this added iron is a benefit depends on your age and your health status. For most individuals the occasional use of a cast iron skillet will cause no health concerns, after all there is iron in your body.  It has never been reported, however to be harmful or carcinogenic and in the case of tomato sauce actually imparts a richness to the sauce.  Did you know that black pepper contains carcinogens? How about Char Grilling and lets not even talk about Teflon?  How about all those settlers over an open campfire and George Washington’s pots on his open hearth.  So do as you will but I will stick to my cast iron.