Meatballs The Spuntino Way Recipes

MEATBALLS TONY'S WAY

Steps:

• Place bread in a medium bowl; add enough water to moisten and let stand for 1 minute. Drain and squeeze liquid from bread; tear or crumble bread into small pieces and transfer to a large bowl, along with ground beef, garlic, parsley, cheese, raisins, pine nuts, salt, pepper, eggs, and dried breadcrumbs. Mix until well combined.
• Shape meat mixture into 2 1/2-inch meatballs. Place equal amounts of olive and grapeseed oil in a large skillet so that the skillet is filled 1/2-inch deep with oil and heat over medium heat. When oil is hot, add meatballs to skillet, working in batches if necessary, and cook, turning occasionally, until browned and cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
• Heat tomato sauce in a large saucepan. Transfer meatballs to saucepan and let simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with remaining cheese.

MEATBALLS: THE SPUNTINO WAY

Steps:

• 1. Heat the oven to 325°F. Put the fresh bread in a bowl, cover it with water, and let it soak for a minute or so. Pour off the water and wring out the bread, then crumble and tear it into tiny pieces.
• 2. Combine the bread with all the remaining ingredients except the tomato sauce in a medium mixing bowl, adding them in the order they are listed. Add the dried bread crumbs last to adjust for wetness: the mixture should be moist wet, not sloppy wet.
• 3. Shape the meat mixture into handball-sized meatballs and space them evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The meatballs will be firm but still juicy and gently yielding when they're cooked through. (At this point, you can cool the meatballs and hold them in the refrigerator for as long as a couple of days or freeze them for the future.)
• 4. Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce in a sauté pan large enough to accommodate the meatballs comfortably.
• 5. Dump the meatballs into the pan of sauce and nudge the heat up ever so slightly. Simmer the meatballs for half an hour or so (this isn't one of those cases where longer is better) so they can soak up some sauce. Keep them there until it's time to eat.
• 6. Serve the meatballs 3 to a person in a healthy helping of the red sauce, and hit everybody's portion-never the pan-with a fluffy mountain of grated cheese. Reserve the leftover tomato sauce (it will be super-extra-delicious) and use it anywhere tomato sauce is called for in this book.

FRANKIES' MEATBALLS RECIPE | COOK THE BOOK

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 325°F. Put the fresh bread in a bowl, cover it with water, an let it soak for a minute or so. Pour off the water and wring out the bread, then crumble and tear it into tiny pieces.
• Combine the bread with all of the remaining ingredients except the tomato sauce in a medium mixing bowl, adding them in the order that they are listed. Add the dried bread crumbs last to adjust for wetness; the mixture should be moist wet, not sloppy wet.
• Shape the meat mixture into handball-sized meatballs and space them evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The meatballs will be firm but still juicy and gently yielding when they're cooked through. (At this point, you can cool the meatballs and hold them in the refrigerator for as long as a couple of days or freeze them for the future.)
• Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce in a sauté pan large enough to accommodate the meatballs comfortably.
• Dump the meatballs into the pan of sauce and nudge the heat up ever so slightly. Simmer the meatballs for half an hour or so (this isn't one of those cases where longer is better) so they can soak up some of the sauce. Keep them there until it's time to eat.
• Serve the meatballs 3 to a person in a healthy helping of red sauce, and hit everybody's portion-never the pan-with a fluffy mountain of grated cheese. Reserve the leftover tomato sauce (it will be extra-super-delicious) and use it anywhere tomato sauce is called for in this book.

TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• 1. Combine the olive oil and garlic in a large deep saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring or swirling occasionally, until the garlic is deeply colored-striations of deep brown running through golden cloves-and fragrant. If the garlic starts to smell acrid or sharp or is taking on color quickly, pull the pan off the stove and reduce the heat.
• 2. While the garlic is getting golden, deal with the tomatoes: Pour them into a bowl and crush them with your hands. We like to pull out the firmer stem end from each of the tomatoes as we crush them and discard those along with the basil leaves that are packed into a can.
• 3. When the garlic is just about done, add the red pepper flakes to the oil and cook them for 30 seconds or a minute, to infuse their flavor and spice into the oil. Dump in the tomatoes, add the salt, and stir well. Turn the heat up to medium, get the sauce simmering at a gentle pace, not aggressively, and simmer for 4 hours. Stir it from time to time. Mother it a little bit.
• 4. Check the sauce for salt at the end. The sauce can be cooked with meat at this point, or stored, covered, in the fridge for at least 4 days or frozen for up to a few months.