"A Man and His Meatballs" & "Two Meatballs in The Italian Kitchen" - Meatballs two ways for National Meatball Day

Date I made these recipes:  March 19, 2017 – for National Meatball Day (March 9, 2017)

A Man & His Meatballs – The Hilarious but True Story of a Self-Taught Chef and Restaurateur -  with 75 Recipes by John LaFemina with Pam Manela

Published by Regan – An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

ISBN: 13: 978-0-06-085335-8; © 2006

Recipe:  Veal, beef, and pork meatballs with ricotta filling – p. 169-170

Two Meatballs in The Italian Kitchen by Pino Luongo & Mark Strausman

Published by Artisan

ISBN: 13: 978-1-57965-345-3; © 2007

Recipe:  Fresh Pasta with[Veal]Meatballs and Mushrooms  - p. 52

Let me just jump right to the moral of this story:  When push comes to shove, make your own family's damned meatballs on National Meatball Day and just be done with it!

Let me now return you to the beginning of our story, already in progress.  Turns out March 9^th is National Meatball Day.  I had no idea. 

Now, it's not that other cultures don't have their own meatballs because they do, but given that I'm Sicilian, it just seemed logical to me to make Italian meatballs because that is what I know and love.

My late Aunt Rose has a great meatball recipe. I've made it a thousand times, but since it is in a family cookbook and not a cookbook that I purchased, I decided to give it a miss to make something that was in a "cookbook" cookbook because well, you know, that would be the point of my blog!

So I searched my collection titles for "meatballs" and came up with the two cookbooks listed above, A Man & His Meatballs, and Two Meatballs in The Italian Kitchen, and call me crazy, but I do not think it is too much to expect that two cookbooks containing the word "meatball" in the title should then include lots of recipes for meatballs, plural.

I am going to have to start lowering my expectations about these things because I was way off on my expectations and assumptions.

The first book I pulled off the shelf, A Man and His Meatballs, contained one – ONE – and only one meatball recipe and it was the one I made. What?  Honestly, I was a little disturbed by this discovery although I will say the recipe was quite tasty.  The making of it/them though, was fraught with peril as you shall see.

The second book I pulled off the shelf, Two Meatballs in The Italian Kitchen, contained six meatball recipes plus two recipes for meatloaf that were included in the meatball section.  Well now, I don't know about you, but a meatball is a meatball and a meatloaf is not a meatball, right?  Exactly.

Of the meatballs listed in this book, here were our choices as listed in the Recipe Index:

• Pan-fried:  In a word, yawn. These days, I either bake my meatballs or I immerse them into the tomato sauce or chicken broth so they can gently "poach."  I like the taste better and it is less messy that way.
• Veal Meatballs with Green Apple:  I cannot.  I just cannot with this recipe. Ugh.
• Meatballs with Spaghetti Coco Pazzo (Coco Pazzo is a restaurant name):  So these essentially are "house" meatballs which is fine, but like I said, I could have easily made my Aunt's recipe (with her sauce to boot) and called it a day.
• Fresh Pasta with [veal] Meatballs and Mushrooms:  this is the dish I made and it worked out fine...eventually
• And then there were your dueling meatloaf recipes, one from Mark and one from Pino, your two authors.

 I'm afraid I'm going to have to DQ (disqualify) these last two recipes on the grounds that they are not meatballs as intended for National Meatball Day and therefore do not count.  That then left me with four, and then I whittled the four recipes down to one and that "one" would then join the other "one" (and "only" recipe) from the other meatball book for a total of two recipes i.e. meatballs two ways.

Now let me just say that in the past, I've made two recipes at a time without much of a hiccup but today was not that day.  I am big enough to accept 80% of the blame because of things I did or did not do to move these recipes along, but the other 20% has to fall on the recipe/cookbook's authors because it just does!  It can't be all my fault, right?  If anything, I am guilty of being overambitious although I didn't realize that until the whole saga was over and done with. 

Let's start out then, talking about some of the issues starting with the first recipe for the Veal, beef, and pork meatballs with ricotta filling.  This recipe (I made a half recipe) called for meatballs the size of apples and I just could not bring myself to do that to a meatball and so I made them about golf-ball size.  This may have been why the [smaller] meatballs were a tad overcooked as I didn't adjust the cooking size from 60 minutes to something less than 60 minutes. 

Then there was the filling which was supposed to be light enough (my interpretation) to pipe into the meatball using a pastry bag.  Again, no.  What I did instead was to cut off the top of the meatball, spoon on (more like paste on) some filling and put the top on so that it looked more like a meat cream puff than anything.  So when it came to looks, this recipe failed, but the flavor was there except for the slight toughness of the meatball.  I can live with that.[1]

The [veal] meatballs used in the Fresh Pasta with [Veal] Meatballs and Mushrooms (and peas) recipe was another matter and we must discuss this, we must!

I could probably count on one hand – make that two fingers – the number of times I've made a meatball recipe using just veal, but I'm not a fan.  Why?  Because in my [limited] experience, I don't think veal alone hangs together in a meatball very well, even with the addition of bread crumbs.  Veal plus beef or pork, like the first meatball recipe I made, turned out much better but these turned into kind of a mess.  In the end, I improvised and the dish turned out just fine but the meat sure didn't resemble a meatball as was intended by the recipe and the author.

Like I said at the beginning, I should have just made my aunt's very delicious meatballs and called it a day.

If by now you are scared off by these recipes (don't be—it was mostly me), then head back to each book to find alternates to each dish as there are plenty.  Let's start our discussion then, with the contents of A Man and His Meatballs.

This book is half stories, half recipes.  The story portion is all about the creation of his restaurant, Apizz, now closed, and all the trials and tribulations that come with restaurant creation, and let me just say that what was true then (2006), is true now:  opening a restaurant is hard work and costs a fortune. For those of you who think (erroneously) that this would just be a "dream come true," please read then re-read then re-read again the first half of this book. 

Okay, end of the "fair warning" section.  Part II of this book is filled with recipes for "Appetizers & Antipasti," "Soups;" "Salads;" "Pasta & Risotto;" "Meats & Poultry;" "Fish;" "Basic Recipes (like sauces, etc.)," and "Desserts," and honestly, I am pretty  hungry right now.  My only critique, and it's small, is I wish he had swapped out other pasta dishes for the risotto and gnocchi recipes included here.  That said, he paired gnocchi with "Honey-Braised Short Ribs" (p. 153) and I am all about short ribs so there's that.

Like I said before, had I just made his apple-sized meatballs as directed, this would have likely been a home run.  Live and learn.

As to Two Meatballs in The Italian Kitchen, this book is fun because these two "meatballs" (I keep thinking of the word "goombah" which has several meanings but I'm settling on "close friends") each include their favorite recipes for all kinds of dishes, some of which may appeal to you more than the pasta dish I made (which again, was good, if not nothing like they intended).  Here is there Table of Contents:

• Stand-Alone Soups
• The Great Meatball Debate
• Dried Pasta and the Unification of the Two Meatballs
• Fresh Pasta Like Mama Used to Make:  Essential Techniques and Well-Matched Sauces
• Risotto and Farrotto (Farro is a grain)
• Two Meatballs Go Fishing
• Meat and Poultry:  Rustic Oven Cooking
• Cucina al Fresco:  Grilling Italian-Style
• The Twenty-First Region of Italy:  Italian-American Cooking
• Sunday Means Dinner
• The Two Meatballs Go Veggie
• Dessert at Last

I'm intrigued by the chapter about Italian-American Cooking because Pino came to the US from Italy and like a lot of chefs from the "homeland," comments about the hybrid cooking developed by other Italian/Sicilian immigrants to America.  Even my own grandparents adapted their cooking to their new homeland, especially once the grandchildren came on the scene.  They still kept some of their homeland favorites but there was not one grandchild who didn't turn up a nose at the thought of eating tripe so there it is.

Okay, then, you can do the extra-curricular reading on your own and select other recipes if you choose, but here then, are meatballs "two ways" for National Meatball Day.

Veal, Beef, and Pork Meatballs with Ricotta Filling – 8 to 10 servings- from A Man and His Meatballs

For the meatballs:

3 cups cubed crustless filone or regular Italian bread (about ½ loaf)

1 pound ground veal

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork (Ann's Note to Twin City residents:  Lunds & Byerlys carries a mixture of these three meats.)

1 egg

½ onion, chopped

¼ chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup chopped fresh basil

1 ½ cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Pinch of oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups Basic Tomato Sauce (p. 197) (Ann's Note:  I thawed some of my own sauce that I had in the freezer so I skipped this step.  You can use your own sauce in whatever form that takes, or you can make his sauce, ingredients and recipe below.)

For the stuffing:

1 cup ricotta cheese

½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Black pepper to taste

To finish the meatballs:

1cup Basic Tomato Sauce

½ cup ricotta cheese

¼ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

For the sauce (makes 5-6 cups):

¼ cup chopped shallots

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

¼ cup olive oil

Two 28-ounce cans whole plum tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons salt

Pinch of black pepper

Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)

To make the sauce:

In a large stockpot over medium heat, cook the shallots and garlic in the oil until they soften, 6 to 8 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, oregano, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and ½ cup of water.

Raise the heat to high and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up the tomatoes slightly with a wooden spoon.  Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.  The sauce can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 3 months. (Ann's Note:  you will need about 3 cups of this sauce for a full meatball recipe.)

To make the meatballs:

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Run the cubed bread under water and gently squeeze out the excess liquid.  Put the bread in a large mixing bowl.  Add the remaining meatballs ingredients to the bowl, except for the tomato sauce, and mix well with your hands.  Divide the mixture into 8 equal portions.  Using your hands, roll each portion into a large round meatballs, about the size of an apple.  Place the meatballs in a medium to large baking dish.  Ann's Note:  recall if you will, my comment from above which was that I decided not to make my meatballs the size of an apple, opting instead for golf balls.  I think I should have stuck with apples as the smaller-sized meatballs were a tad overdone.  Plus, my golf game sort of stinks which should have been another sign.

In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups Basic Tomato Sauce (see above) and 2 cups water. Spoon the tomato sauce and water mixture over the meatballs until the liquid comes three-quarters of the way up (if more liquid is needed, add water).  Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake the meatballs for 1 hour, turning the dish after 30 minutes.  Remove the baking dish from the oven, drain and discard the liquid, and let the meatballs cool to room temperature.  (The meatballs can also in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.)

To make the stuffing

Combine the ricotta cheese with the Parmigiano, salt, and pepper in a medium mixing bowl.

Using an apple corer or small knife, core out a hole to the bottom of the meatball that is about ½ inch in diameter.  Fill the hole with the cheese mixture, use a pastry bag).

Ann's Note:  As I mentioned above, this step did not go as planned.  First, my meatballs were just a tad overdone and boring a hole big enough to pipe the mixture into just wasn't going to work too well.  Second, the mixture was just a tad thick for a pastry bag.  I'm not sure if what I made was what the chef/author intended, but he wasn't here coaching me along so there you go.  Third, if we were having company, I might have tried to go along [with the recipe directions] to get along, but we were not having company, and so, dear reader, I punted.  I cut the top off the meatball, spooned a ton of the mixture into my non-apple-sized meatballs, put the top back on and that was that, no apologies.

To finish the meatballs

Spoon the 1 cup of tomato sauce evenly over the meatballs and heat for 10 to 15 minutes at 350F.  Remove the pan from the oven.  Place 1 tablespoon of ricotta cheese over top of each meatball (it should look like the cheese is oozing out of the center), sprinkle with Parmigiano cheese, and heat for an additional 3 minutes.

Ann's Final Note:  This step never happened and not just because I ran out of ricotta, but because I ran out of patience as well. All that said, the taste was great and they didn't look too bad, but these suckers in no way resembled the photo in the cookbook and you probably shouldn't expect yours to, either!

Fresh Pasta with [Veal] Meatballs and Mushrooms (and peas!) – serves 6 as main course

For the meatballs

8 ounces ground veal

¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 large egg yolk

½ cup bread crumbs

1 small garlic clove, minced

2 teaspoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the rest of the dish

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling (optional)

1 medium onion, chopped

12 ounces white button mushrooms, wiped clean, stems removed, and sliced ½ inch thick

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ cups fresh sweet peas or thawed tiny frozen peas

½ cup cups vegetable stock or vegetable broth made with Knorr powdered bouillon (Ann's Note:  I used chicken stock because I had just enough on hand.)

6 fresh mint leaves

1 ½ pounds pasta all chitarra or tagliolini made from Fresh Egg Pasta Dough (p. 94) Ann's Note: These two fresh pastas are similar to spaghetti and I used the dried spaghetti I had on hand.  It saved time and possibly saved my husband from another round of my swearing!

To finish it

4 tablespoon unsalted butter

¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

½ cup pasta cooking liquid

Place the meatballs in a large bowl, add the Parmigiano, egg yolk, bread crumbs, garlic and parsley, and season well with salt and pepper.  Mix thoroughly but delicately so as not to compress the meat, which would toughen it.

Take a piece of the meat mixture about the size of a small grape and roll the mixture between the palms of your hands into a small ball.  Place on a plate, and repeat with the remaining meat mixture.

Line a large shallow plate with paper towels.  Set aside.

Heat 1 cup of the olive oil in a 10- to 12-inch skillet over medium heat.  Place only as many meatballs in the pan as you can without crowding them and panfry until browned and crisp on one side, about 3 minutes.  Flip and cook until the other side is browned and crisp, about 2 minutes more.  Remove the meatballs from the pan with a spatula and place on the prepared plate to drain.  Repeat with any remaining meatballs.

Ann's Notes [brace thyself]:  This all started out well but quickly broke down in the making thereof.  Let's start with the meatball size itself as I feel like this got the whole ball rolling downhill in a hurry.  The recipe said to shape the meat mixture the size of a small grape, and maybe I used the wrong-size "grape" as my model for the size of my meatballs because they were hard to handle.  They looked pretty but when I tried to flip those suckers after the requisite three minutes, they stuck to the pan and nothing short of dynamite got them off the bottom.  I tried a small spatula, tiny tongs, regular-size tongs – nada. So while a few meatballs here and there held their shapes, the rest started to fall apart.  And so this is when I had my "Psycho" moment which is to say I got out a plastic meat chopper and just started hacking away at those grape-sized meatballs that were both sticking and disintegrating at the same time. Let me add that as I was tacking out my wrath on the poor meatball, Andy gave me a look that said "Are you crazy?" while at the same time backing away from the stove!  Once I satisfied myself that the meat (now resembling ground beef) was cooked, I removed it to the paper towel as directed to drain and then carried on below.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in another large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 4 minutes.  Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and sauté 5 minutes.  Add the peas, toss and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the stock and mint and cook for another 5 minutes.  Taste and, if necessary, adjust the seasoning.  Add the meatballs, toss well, and set aside, covered, to keep warm.  Ann's Note:  Well, all these instructions are well and good but that's not how I did it.  I think I let the onions cook for 4 minutes but then I shorted the time on the mushrooms, added the peas before they were ready, added stock...then more stock...then more stock to prevent everything from sticking (still, and with the temperature as low as I could get it), skipped the mint, added the meat mixture back to the dish, heated for a minute or so, then served.  Mama ain't got time to play today!

Fill a 10-quart stockpot with 7 quarts of water.  Add 2 tablespoons kosher salt and bring to a boil.  Add the pasta and cook until al dente.

To finish the dish, reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid, then drain the pasta and stir it into the sauce.  Add the butter, the Parmigiano, and a few tablespoons of the reserved cooking water, and heat over very low heat.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, then toss thoroughly, drizzling with more olive oil if desired.

Ann's Final Note:  By this time, I just wanted to eat, already and so skipped adding the butter and the Parmigiano.  As I told my husband, the other meatball dish has ricotta and Parmigiano so did we really need more calories in this dish?  We did not! In hindsight, I should have just committed to making one dish or the other, but not both, but I didn't and so then had to run with several Plan B's during my time in the kitchen.  Nobody died in the making thereof, but like I said, I should have just stuck with my aunt's recipe and called it a day.  Who knew National Meatball Day would be so educational?  Not I, reader.  Not I!

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[1] By the way and this is Breaking News:  I just now discovered a video of chef/author John LaFemina making these signature meatballs with Martha Stewart and oh sure, now I find it!:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp2R5RPVlaA

"The Wiseguy Cookbook - My Favorite Recipes From My Life As a Goodfella to Cooking on the Run" by Henry Hill - Sunday Gravy with Aunt Milly's Meatballs and Aunt Nina's Caponatina (eggplant) appetizer - Christmas Eve 2016

Date I made this recipe:  December 24, 2016 – Christmas Eve

The Wiseguy Cookbook – My Favorite Recipes From My Life as A Goodfella to Cooking on the Run (Recipes You Can't Refuse – From America's Most Famous Wiseguy) by Henry Hill and Priscilla David; foreword by Nicholas Pileggi

Published by New American Library

ISBN: 0-451-20706-8; © 2002

Recipes:  Aunt Nina's Caponatina (a/k/a Caponata, an eggplant appetizer) – p. 32-33; Sunday Gravy [Meat Sauce] – p. 33-34; Milly's Meatballs [Brooklyn, 1950] – p. 38-39; Basic Tomato Sauce – p. 13-14

In case you didn't know, a "wiseguy" is a person who belongs to the Mafia or is a smartass.  Sometimes they are one in the same thing.

One of my father's frequent sayings was "What are you, a wiseguy?"  I'm pretty sure he meant the later definition seeing as how he often directed it at me or my brother or other younger family members when we were smarting off.  But given that he was 100% Sicilian American, he might have also been talking about a wiseguy as in a member of the Mob.

That's a stretch though – kind of.  Not that dad was in the Mob (perish the thought!) but he was born and raised on the east coast, your unofficial HQ for all things mafioso.  And his aunt, my great-aunt, Antoinette, used to joke all the time that she was the "Godfather's godmother."

So we're sticking with "wiseguy" as in "smartass."

"Henry Hill" though, was a wiseguy as in mobster, and possibly a wiseguy as in smartass, and this cookbook tells about his life on the run (from the law) where the real punishment was lack of access to his favorite Italian foodstuffs.

I have to tell you, that would get to me as well.  I mean, to not have pasta or sauce is a sacrilege.  To be without the other accoutrements such as meatballs or sausage or Italian cookies would render me useless.  And so I feel this man's pain! 

The Wiseguy cookbook is a good read as Henry tells us all about trying to cook while in prison and later, the Witness Protection Program.  His life of crime was chronicled in the book Wiseguy:  Life in a Mafia Family by Nicholas Pileggi (who wrote the cookbook's foreword) and this book became the basis for the movie, Goodfellas.  Actor Ray Liotta played Henry's character.  And so now, of course, I want to watch the movie again just to pull it all together. And to check out the food of course, because there are some great food scenes.

And there are also some great recipes in this book and I say "great" without having tried them all because I can pretty much tell by the ingredients that many of these dishes could have graced my family's table with just a few tweaks here and there.  And of course, my family dishes are the best and if you say otherwise, I may have to take you out and I do not mean to a restaurant, capisce?

Henry divided this book into two sections:  Section One:  Brooklyn and the Mob, and Section Two:  On the Run (in Omaha, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Seattle and Washington State and California – man the guy got around!)  And stories, like the one I'm telling you, accompany the recipes and I swear to you, a lot of them sound like my family stories save for the part about being in the mob and all.

Now there were many, many things I could have made from this book but I was on a mission and that was to find a pasta recipe to serve up on Christmas Eve.  It was tradition in my immediate family to make spaghetti and meatballs before going to Christmas Eve mass and even though my parents are gone, I still carry on the pasta tradition in my house.  In the years where we weren't allowed to eat meat, we skipped the meatballs.  Some years (early on) we even had to fast which was ridiculous.  I mean mass goes long on any given Sunday and ridiculously long on Christmas Eve, and does the Lord really mean for us to pass out from hunger?  No.

This year, I decided to keep things simple and make the recipe for "Sunday Gravy," otherwise known as sauce, and to be clear that means "red sauce."  There is no other kind of sauce if you are southern Italian or Sicilian. "White" is not a sauce, it's a....something else.

Now plenty of east coast Italians refer to their red sauce as "Sunday Gravy" but I don't know why that is.  Maybe it's a translation thing?  And then there's your "macaroni" which is how most Italians referred to the vehicle for the sauce, that morphed overnight into the slightly more snotty "pasta, this the result of the homemade pasta craze of the 90's.  I have only ever made homemade "pasta" in cooking classes.  If boxed pasta was good enough for my family, it was good enough for me.  (Back in the day, we were always "Buitoni" brand people and failing that, Creamette® which was everywhere—still is!)

So "pasta" + "Sunday Gravy"/red sauce was the dish of the day.  Although I'm including the cookbook's recipe for a basic tomato sauce, I made my family's version to which I  added meatballs and Italian sausage.  I decided to give Henry Hill's meatball recipe a try and it was quite good, but I purchased the sausage rather than try my hand at grinding my own meat and adding my own seasoning.  Tis the season to draw the line on a few things in the interest of time.

On a side note, there is another Christmas Eve tradition mostly enjoyed by your east coast Italians called the Feast of the Seven Fishes.  Since we couldn't get our hands on a lot of fish or seafood where I grew up, we never "observed" this feast.  And I don't think my extended family on the east coast did, either.  As you might have surmised, seven separate fish dishes are made and eaten on Christmas Eve.  Given that we are only a two-person household, and I am not that fond of fish, I have never had the urge to make seven fish dishes because I'm picturing leftovers for days and that will simply not do. (And we all know the classic rule, right:  Thou shalt not reheat fish in the microwave, particularly at the office, or there will be consequences.)

And so Sunday Gravy and pasta in four parts:  make the sauce, make the meatballs, make the gravy, boil the pasta – piece of cake.  Well, except there are always little hiccups and this time, the hiccup was otherwise known as a "meatball."

The meatball recipe calls for you to fry the meatballs but I haven't fried a meatball in who knows how long, preferring instead to bake them (or sometimes put them in the sauce to "poach").  And so I decided to bake these and then I thought myself to be some kind of genius for using a mini-cupcake pan for the meatballs as the size was just perfect. Normally, I just put them on a baking sheet and have at it.

So I put the meatball mixture into the pans, turned on the oven, set the timer and almost over-baked them; the word "crunchy" comes to mind.  Well, crap, now what?

So channeling The Grinch, I decided "I must save these meatballs, but how?"

I'll tell you how:  you "reconstitute" the meatballs by giving them a broth bath. I used chicken broth as I had that on hand but you could use beef as well.  Lucky for me, I decided to make the meatballs the night before so I put the meatballs and broth in the refrigerator and the next day they were perfect.

So that's the whole Sunday Sauce/Meatball thing and now let's talk about a bonus recipe - Aunt Nina's Caponatina.  To clarify, this is not my Aunt Nina as I don't have an Aunt Nina, and "caponatina" is a diminutive of the word caponata which is an eggplant appetizer that I love.

This recipe promises to come close to the Progresso brand caponata my family grew up eating.  And it was good attempt to be sure, but believe it or not, the canned caponata won the day.

I think it comes down to this:  the eggplant was a bit too crunchy in the homemade version, and the Progresso brand was slightly sweeter and this is necessary to offset the tartness of the red wine vinegar.

In all likelihood, the sweetness is what caused us to inhale this stuff the minute my mom put it out on a tray table, along with other snacks, during Christmas week.  We inhaled this stuff such that mom finally figured out to stock up rather than deal with the proverbial "Is there any more?"  "No?"  "Waaaaaaaaaaa."

During the early years of my childhood, Progresso's caponata was included in a care package my grandma put together during our summertime visits, along with canned tomatoes, boxes of dry pasta and Stella Doro cookies and biscotti.  The trunk of our car always rode ridiculously low to the ground on the way back from New Jersey but it was worth it, save for the times the muffler fell off (almost annually and almost always in Pennsylvania on our way home) in which case, dad had to unpack all those heavy bags to get at a coat hanger to rig up the muffler until we got to a gas station.  I feel like Facebook with its "Like" and "Share" if this ever happened to your family (the muffler falling off, that is). (Every time this happened, my dad, of course, just about went ballistic, but every year thereafter on our road trip back east, he would laugh when my brother and I commented, upon seeing the "Pennsylvania Welcomes You" sign,"It's about time for the muffler to fall off, don't you think?")

So anyway, now that I have this homemade recipe under my belt, I'm going to recommend that you find some way to slow-cook the eggplant so that it's very soft, almost mushy.  This might be as easy as cooking it longer on the stovetop but you're going to have to play with the liquid ratio so it doesn't dry out. And I would probably not peel the eggplant because it seems to me that Progresso didn't although I could be wrong.  I also think you need to add more cooking time to the celery and onions so that they too, become very soft. Finally, instead of regular sugar, substitute brown sugar as I think it brings the flavor closer to that of the canned product.

So that's the word on Henry Hill and his recipes and this cookbook.  Had I the time, I could certainly eat my way through the rest of the book as his recipes are making me both hungry and nostalgic.   My dad always called us to the table with an "A mangia" (Basically, "let's eat") where we inhaled our "spaghets" (dad's term) and our caponata and life was good.

PS—It looks like Progresso no longer makes caponata and damn it all, why not?  And two years ago, Jane Parker, an A&P grocery store brand, discontinued it's fabulous fruitcake.  To quote my mother, "What is this world coming to!"

Sunday Gravy (Meat Sauce) – serves 8-10 generously

6 cups Basic Tomato Sauce (p. 13 or below)

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 hot sausages or 2 hot and 2 mild (about ½ pound)

1 recipe Milly's Meatballs (p. 38 or below)

2 pounds cooked pasta of your choice

Begin preparing Basic Tomato Sauce. While it is simmering, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.  Poke holes in the sausages with a fork and put in the pan.  Cook on low to medium heat, turning occasionally until lightly brown, about 8-10 minutes.  You don't have to cook them all the way through because they'll cook more in the sauce.  Drain on paper towels.  Cut in half and add to tomato sauce.  While sauce simmers, prepare meatballs.

When meatballs are browned, spoon them carefully into the sauce.  Continue simmering until meatballs are cooked through, about 10-15 minutes.  Adjust seasoning.  Serve family style over pasta in a large bowl.  Have plenty of bread to sop up the sauce.

Basic Tomato Sauce  – Makes 3 cups of sauce (enough sauce for 4-6 people) (Ann's Note:  I made my own family's recipe.  If you don't want to make it, a basic store-bought tomato basil sauce will do)

6-8 cloves garlic, minced or thinly sliced (about 2 tablespoons)

¼ cup olive oil

½ cup chopped brown or white onions or shallots

2 28-ounce cans peeled plum tomatoes with basil, drained, reserving juice

12 large basil leaves, torn in large pieces, or 1 tablespoon dried

¼ cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, or 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon dried parsley

½ teaspoon each salt and pepper

In a large skillet or medium-large wide pot, cook garlic briefly in olive oil over medium-low heat.  Do not brown, or it will get bitter.  If using optional onions, cook them 3-5 minutes in olive oil, then add garlic and cook 1 minute.  Add the juice from the canned tomatoes to stop the garlic cooking.  Crush tomatoes with your hands or chop well no a cutting board and add to the pan.  Add basil, parsley, and ¼ teaspoon each of the salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, stir thoroughly once, then reduce heat to a low simmer.  As the acid from the tomatoes flows to the top, skim it off every 10-15 minutes.  Sauce is ready in half an hour, but cook up to 1 hour if you want it thicker. Check for seasoning and add the rest of the salt and pepper, if desired.

Milly's Meatballs [Brooklyn, 1950] – serves 6

1 ½ pounds ground beef + ½ pound ground pork – OR – 1 pound ground beef + ¾ pound ground veal + ¼ pound ground pork

2 eggs

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

1 tablespoon minced fresh basil

¼ cup chopped white or brown onions or shallots

3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

¼ cup grated fresh Romano or Parmesan cheese

½ cup dried, seasoned bread crumbs (Ann's Note:  if you only have plain breadcrumbs, add a bit of the following to it to make "seasoned" crumbs – garlic salt, dried parsley, dried basil, dried oregano and/or a bit of Italian seasoning spice mix)

½ teaspoon each salt and pepper (to taste)

2 tablespoons chopped canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, or Basic Tomato Sauce (optional)

3 tablespoons olive oil (or more if needed)

Combine ground meats in a large bowl and mix together well with your hands.  Add in eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.  Add in all other ingredients except tomatoes or sauce and olive oil, and combine to form a mixture that is soft but still sticks together.  If meatballs are too hard or dry, add chopped tomatoes or sauce.

Heat olive oil in frying pan.  Place a small bowl of water and a plate near meatball mixture.  While oil is heating, roll approximately 3 tablespoons of meatball mixture at a time into walnut-size balls in palm of hand, adding a small amount of water if they don't roll well.  Place each completed ball on the plate.  Continue forming until all meatballs are done (you can place them on top of each other like a tower).  Test the oil temperature – a drop of water should sizzle when it hits the oil.  Fry meatballs in batches, turning until browned on all sides and cooked through.  Drain on paper towels.  Can be served plain, as main dish in any tomato sauce, on an Italian roll with Parmesan, provolone, or mozzarella as a sandwich, or sliced and put on pizza.

Variations:

1. Add ½ cup golden raisins.  This is from Tommy DiSimone's father.  This makes a sweet meatball.  Ann's Note: Sicilian meatballs often contain raisins although nobody in my family does that.
2. Add ¼ cup chopped pine nuts. Toast them lightly if you want, but keep in mind they'll also get cooked when the meatballs do.

Ann's Note:  to fry or not to fry, that is the question.  I used to fry my meatballs and then quit doing that in favor of baking them as it's far less messy.  As I mentioned above, I baked them at either 400 or 425 (I can't recall), for either 20 or 25 minutes (I can't recall that either!).  But since I almost incinerated them, check for doneness after 15 minutes.

Aunt Nina's Caponatina – makes about 3 cups (Ann's Note:  even a half recipe made quite a bit of "caponata")

2 tablespoons salt

2 medium eggplants (about 1 pound each)

½ cup olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)

3 stalks celery, thinly sliced (about 1 ½ cups)

½ cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons sugar (Ann's Note:  I recommend brown sugar)

2-3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

¾ cup tomato puree

¼ cup chopped pitted black olives

½ cup capers

Fill a large bowl two-thirds full of water, add salt, and stir to dissolve.  Peel and slice eggplant into ½-inch slices.  Place slices in  the bowl and let soak for 1-2 hours (weight them with a pan or plate so they stay in the water).  Drain off the liquid and pat dry with paper towels.  Cut slices into ½-inch thick cubes.

Heat ¼ of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Fry eggplant 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly, and drain on paper towels.  Cook, stirring occasionally over low to medium heat until soft, approximately 10 minutes.  Add wine and cook until wine has almost evaporated.  Return eggplant to pan.

Dissolve sugar in the red wine vinegar and pour over eggplant.  Add tomato puree, olives, and capers; stir and add salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer over low heat 5 minutes, until well-blended.  Cool to room temperature and serve.

Refrigerated, this will last up to two weeks.  If it's not gobbled up sooner.

Ann's Notes:  The jury is still out on whether or not pre-soaking the eggplant in a salt bath makes any difference in cooking but I was a good solider and followed the directive.  I can't say it made any difference though, as it still took a long time to soften and I did not achieve the nearly-mush texture I wanted (or was used to).  The vegetables (onions and celery) also need more time.  They need to be just on the shy side of "soft."  And as I already mentioned, were I to make this again, I think I would use brown sugar instead of regular as it more closely approximates the Progresso brand I know and love.

"The Meatball Cookbook Bible" - Beef Meatballs with Mustard and Dried Apricots & Pork Meatballs in Apple Cream Sauce - Holiday Party Food!

Date I made these recipes:  December 4, 2016 – Holiday party food!

The Meatball Cookbook Bible – 500 Mouth-Watering Variations on One of the World's Best-Loved Foods by Ellen Brown

Published by Cider Mill Press

ISBN: 978-160433097-7; © 2009

Purchased at Half Price Books, St. Paul, MN

Recipes:  Beef Meatballs with Mustard and Dried Apricots – p. 130-131; Pork Meatballs in Apple Cream Sauce – p. 183-185

You probably know this, but cooking is dangerous.  You have hot burners, hot liquids, and sharp knives, and many a chef has injured themselves while attempting to bang out fantastic food.

In my case, my "industrial" accident happened when I was trying to move a metal bookend so as to take this cookbook off my shelf.  My pinkie finger connected with the bookend and ow, ow, ow!  Who knew that those suckers were so sharp?

And just like that, the roll I was on writing and publishing my holiday party food blogs came to a screeching halt.  My apologies.

Happily nothing dire happened in the kitchen while I was making these recipes except for a lot of swearing over the lack of explicit instructions.

I mean what the hell folks, are there not editors making more money than me out there who are supposed to catch this stuff?  Because I found an error in each recipe and it always involved "what am I supposed to do with the rest of these [insert food item here]?" I looked at each recipe several times and then had my husband read it and we remain perplexed.

Now nothing that was or wasn't in the recipes made a difference to the outcome which is always a good thing, and the end results were tasty but of course, there were a few issues of note which I will cover in a minute.

In general, the beef meatballs were good but seemed a little mushy in the middle, whether from the breadcrumbs, the apricots or a combination of both we don't know.  We do know that our guests enjoyed them so perhaps it was our palate?  Anyway, we doubled the recipes, baked them off and then froze them, sans sauce, a couple of weeks before the party.  We added the sauces just before serving.

As to the pork meatballs, be warned that you will end up with a ton of sauce.  A ton. In retrospect I realize that doubling the meatball mixture does not always mean to also double the sauce.  In fact, it usually ends up being just the opposite.  But what they hey, they are going to be your meatballs so if you want lots of sauce, go to it.

Be warned though, that the pork meatball sauce calls for applejack brandy and since I knew a couple of kids were coming, I decided to pass on that option as I really didn't want to get the stink-eye from their parents.  Not that the parents would have noticed but we would have.  Responsible hosts let their guests eat responsibly!

As you might imagine, a cookbook with the title The Meatball Cookbook Bible is loaded with meatball recipes and so finding some for our party table was not the problem; eliminating some was the problem!  It took us a while to cull the herd to the two recipes listed here and while they were good, we shall likely explore other options next year as we like to mix things up a bit.

This "bible" of a book also gives you a wide variety of options in these categories: meat (beef, pork, lamb); poultry; fish and seafood; vegetables, herbs and grains; cheese and even dessert meatballs (a/k/a " chocolate truffles"). There's a section for meatballs in broth and also a variety of "international" meatballs from which to choose.

Before I get to the recipes though, I have to dialogue with you about the incomplete instructions I mentioned above.  Faithful readers knows that nothing sends me over the edge more than missing or incomplete instructions.  And specific to this year's kitchen efforts is the definition of the word "divided" – as in (for example) "1 cup apple cider, divided."

Perhaps it is just me, but in my head, the word "divided" suggests an equal division of ingredients and so a directive of "I cup apple cider, divided" means two, one-half cups each, one to be used now, one to be used later.  At least this is what I (barely) understood in my grade school math class.

And believe it or not, most recipes I've made that called for a "divided" ingredient have been an even split.  If they haven't though, they usually indicate somewhere in the recipe's narrative what I am to do with the remaining amount.  And the remaining amount is usually mathematically correct, i.e., if one cup of an ingredient is to be divided into ¾ cup for the first round, it stands to reason that ¼ cup is what you have left, right?

Not always so.  So let's parse the instructions that drove me crazy:

#1 – The beef meatball recipe called for 1/3 of a cup of mustard, divided.  The recipe goes on to say to use ¼ (of 1/3 cup) for the meatballs and the remaining for the sauce.  Okay, fine, but I would have preferred it if she would have spelled out the "remaining" in measurement form which breaks down roughly into 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon.  Now, was that hard? (Answer:  yes, which is why I sent this "equation to my husband to figure out for me!)

And this is perhaps also a "me" thing, but when I look at an ingredient list, I want to see every ingredient I am to use and I want it spelled out.  Why?  Because the ingredient list also becomes my shopping list.  I photocopy the list, head to the grocery store, and we're done.  Here, the ingredient list for the sauce said "apricot preserves and red pepper hot sauce," but no mention was made of the remaining mustard except in the narrative.

And look, if I was making this up for just the two of us or a few guests, perhaps I would not have been so irked, but I was making mass quantities for our party and I want to know exactly how much to have on hand and where it all goes. 

#2 – The pork meatballs called for you to chop one onion and then add half of it to the meatballs mix.  But what to do with the rest of it?  We will never know because the recipe does not say.

Also annoying was the directive to "divide" (there's that word again) 1 cup of apple cider.  Three quarters (3/4) of the cider is used in the meatball sauce recipe, but the remaining ¼ is never accounted for.

Why then, dear reader, why then direct me to pour a whole cup when ¾ of a cup will do?  This drives me absolutely nuts.  Nuts!

So as I am fond of saying, I am going to have to ding this author for these two boo-boos. The flavors were fine and our guests ate them up (pun intended), but I hate incomplete directions and I really hate them when I am cranking out copious quantities of these meatballs for our party table and don't know what is going on with a recipe.  Sad to say, but I imagine I'll have to keep an eagle eye out for further errors if I make more recipes from this cookbook. 

By the way, we were a little nervous about how the beef meatballs would go over (apricots and mustard, what?) but then we remembered that many moons ago, we invited some friends over for dinner and made a chicken pot pie and a meatloaf with mustard and dried apricots.  That recipe was similar to the one below, and I believe we got it from either Bon Appetit or Gourmet.  At any rate, one of the men at the dinner is a straight-up meat and potatoes guy and yet he loved the meatloaf so much, he asked for the recipe.  And he quite enjoyed the beef meatballs at this year's party so the dish is a winner (as is the pork) even if the making of them was almost my undoing!

Beef Meatballs with Mustard and Dried Apricots – makes 4 to 6 servings

Ann's Note:  the author indicates that these are one of her favorite appetizers to serve because the combination of dried apricots with sharp mustard makes each bite flavorful.

For the meatballs

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large shallots, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large egg

1/3 cup Dijon mustard, divided (Ann's Note: into ¼ cup for the meatballs and the rest of the sauce)

3 tablespoons whole milk

¾ cup panko breadcrumbs

1/3 cup finely chopped dried apricots

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage or 2 teaspoons dried

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 ½ pounds ground chuck

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce

½ cup apricot preserves

½ teaspoon hot red pepper sauce

 (Ann's Note:  add remaining Dijon mustard)

Preheat the oven to 450F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and spray the foil with vegetable spray.

Heat oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat.  Add shallots and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until shallots are soft.  While vegetables cook, combine eggs, ¼ cup mustard, and milk in a mixing bowl, and whisk until smooth.  Add breadcrumbs, dried apricots, sage, and cilantro, and mix well.

Add shallot mixture and beef, season to taste with salt and pepper, and mix well again.  Make mixture into 1 ½-inch meatballs, and arrange meatballs on the prepared pan.  Spray tops of meatballs with vegetable oil spray.

Bake meatballs for 12 to 15 minutes, or until cooked through.  While meatballs bake, combine remaining mustard, apricot preserves, and hot red pepper sauce in a small mixing bowl, and whisk well.

Remove the pan from the oven and serve immediately accompanied by the bowl of apricot mustard sauce.

[Author's] Note:  The beef mixture can be prepared up to 1 day in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered.  Also, the meatballs can be baked up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered.  Reheat them in a 350F oven, covered for 10 to 12 minutes or until hot.

[Author's] Note:  Since Japanese panko breadcrumbs are fluffier than Western breadcrumbs, they produce a lighter and more tender meatball.  Substitute them for plain breadcrumbs in any recipe in this book.

Ann's Note:  I made this up three weeks ahead then froze them.  We added the sauce when we reheated.

Pork Meatballs in Cream Sauce – makes 4- 6 servings

For the meatballs

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large egg

2 tablespoons whole milk

½ cup plain breadcrumbs

1 ¼ pounds ground pork

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Vegetable oil spray

For the sauce

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

1 cup apple cider, divided

1 cup chicken stock

¼ cup applejack brandy

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

½ cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat the oven boiler.  (Ann's Note:  I baked these—so much easier!).  Line a rimmed baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and spray the foil with vegetable oil spray.

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes, or until onion is translucent.  While vegetables cook, combine egg and milk in a mixing bowl, and whisk until smooth.  Add breadcrumbs to the mixing bowl, and mix well.

Add ½ of onion mixture* and pork, season to taste with salt and pepper, and mix well again.  Make into 2-inch meatballs, and arrange meatballs on the prepared pan.  Spray tops of meatballs with vegetable oil spray. (*Ann's Note:  Missing from these instructions is what to do with the remaining onion mixture and since I made the meatballs in advance but the sauce the day of, I believe I ended up throwing the rest out.  Pity.)

Broil meatballs 6 inches from the broiler element, turning them with tongs to brown on all sides.  Remove the pan from the oven, and set aside.  Ann's Note:  I baked these at 450F for about 20-25 minutes; check them after 15.

Add apples, ¾ cup cider*, chicken stock, brandy, and mustard to the skillet, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.  Simmer sauce, uncovered, for 10 minutes, or until volume is reduced by 1/3. *Ann's Note:  Despite the fact that the recipe called for you to use 1 cup apple cider, "divided," you only end up using ¾ of that cup. 

Add meatballs and cream to sauce, bring to a boil, and simmer meatballs, covered, over low heat, turning occasionally with a slotted spoon for 15 minutes.