Are you ready for some meatball? ! ! !

Elvis Spotted!

At Fudruckers in Mesa










Are you ready for some meatball? Some Monday night meatball?

Good! Let's get this party started.

Bon Appetit in the January issue featured five, count them, FIVE AMAZING meatball recipes. And since I love me a good meatball I just had to try them. Aaaand this is the first one.

Let me preface this by saying this was the fussiest recipe that I think I've ever made. While it was delicious it took me all damn day. I had a ball making them (pun intended) and would love to make it again, but, seriously, much to ridicules for a spaghetti and meatball recipe. I don't have hours to make a meal. So since I really really want to make this again I decided to channel a little Sandra Lee and rewrite this recipe. It'll considerably shorten the prep time without compromising the flavor.





Mis en place. I really must mis en place with just about every recipe. This little counter by the fridge is my staging area. You know, pull everything you're gonna need and put it here.






This is not all of it, oh no, there is more, much much more.

Spaghetti and meatballs all'amatriciana

Here's what Bon Appetit says:
hails from Amatrice, a town northeast of rome. Classic all'amatriciana sauce is made from tomatoes, guanciale (salt-cured pig's jowl) and hot peppers. Here, bacon stands in for the guanciale. mmm salt-cured pig's jowl. I was wondering what to do with all the salt-cured pig's jowl I've got.


The meatball mix

This was fragrant and oh so pretty









6 oz bacon
2 large cloves garlic
2 lbs lean ground beef
2/3 cup chopped, drained, roasted red peppers (from jar)
2/3 cup panko flakes
2 large eggs
1/2 cup coarse grated onion
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 tbs minced fresh marjoram
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper fresh ground

Get the bacon very cold, cut into manageable chunks and pulse in food processor until consistency of ground beef. Place in large mixing bowl and add ground beef. Garlic press the garlic in. I did not grate the onion but chopped fine, makes for a more rustic (lumpy) meatball. I bought a jar of the Roasted Red peppers at the dollar store. Chop them up pretty small. If there is left over peppers put them in the sauce. I didn't use fresh parm cheese and I don't think it matters. If you don't get Panko flakes then just use cracker crumbs or whatever hard filler you want. I don't think the Panko added anything special. The fresh marjoram is a treat to work with. It's so perfummy. I happen to have it in my garden so I used it. Leave it out or replace with another fresh fragrant herb. I cut the red pepper flakes about in half. It'll still have a tiny bit of heat.

Mix all the meatball stuff together lightly (don't overwork or toughen the meat). Put this in the fridge while you put together the other ingredients.

The sauce I found too fussy to make every time, or even again so this is what I'll make next time.

*channeling Sandra Lee*

THE SAUCE
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
6 slices of bacon
2 large cloves of garlic, garlic pressed into sauce
1 onion, chopped small
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups white wine (or broth or 1/2 broth/wine)
1 tbs minced fresh marjoram

Cut the bacon into garnish size strips, ie; it doesn't really matter. Fry them up in a pan, set bacon aside to cool. Pour off most of the fat.

Form medium sized meatballs. We like them on the large size. Brown them in this pan until almost cooked. They'll cook again in the sauce. Do this in batches and put aside when done.

Saute onion and garlic. Deglaze with the wine/broth and pepper flakes. Reduce this to 1/2. Add spaghetti sauce, 1/2 the bacon and any leftover roasted red peppers. Cook until thick and add marjoram 5 minutes before done. I had an opened can of tomato paste and I used a tablespoon of that in the sauce to boost flavor and thicken.

Pasta
I used spaghetti and kept the noodles long. Cooked al dente, after drained I stirred in a tbs of butter, 1 tbs fresh minced marjoram and some parm cheese. You could eat this pasta all by itself. Yum!

Because I chopped, diced and minced instead of press and grate I ended up with a lumpier meatball. Very moist with all that bacon. You could make the meatballs a day ahead. You cold make the meatballs and freeze raw or brown and freeze. I think the meatballs would benifit from an overnight stay in the fridge so I'll be making them a day ahead next time.

If there is a next time.

Seriously a lot of work for meatballs.

What's this?





Found this on my camera, probably taken around stache time.











Who's hairy arm is that?

He's a little jaunticed.