Recipe: Meatballs and Ziti

~ Laura

DSC_0056-24_edited-1As I mentioned last week, I’m all prepared for the zombie apocalypse, because I can cook cheaply for large numbers of people. Believe me, everyone is going to need a skill in the compound and I’m all set.

Last week, I made Italian meatballs and pasta for some friends with four hungry boys. Recipe and photos below, with the disclaimer that is very difficult to properly style and photograph the final food item, when surrounded by a kitchen of little boys. Meatballs are not only economical, but they are very tasty. And chances are that your foodie friends haven’t had them in years, so they’ll be all like FABULOUS! This meal works for everyone, except your Kosher friends.

Italians have very strong opinions about their meatballs and will get into insane debates about whether it should be called sauce or gravy, and whether you should chop up your onions or cook it with a whole onion. I’m agnostic on these matters.

Italian Meatballs

2 lbs. Of ground beef, pork, and veal

1 cup of dried Italian bread crumbs

1/2 cup of grated Parm cheese

1/4 cup of fresh curly parsley finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

3 cloves of crushed garlic

2 eggs

Olive oil

1. Lightly combine all the ingredients.

2. Brown in olive oil. Nudge them around the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Don’t cook all the way through. Will finish cooking in the tomato sauce.

3. You will be very tempted to try a meatball at this time. But don’t or you’ll get a medieval disease.

4.  makes 30 meatballs, about 1-1/2 inches

 

Pasta and Sauce

1-1/2 cups of onion

4 garlic cloves

3 spare ribs or 2 ribs without bone

2 32 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes

2 lbs of pasta

2  bay leaves

1. Saute onions and garlic. Add salt to break down onions

2. Add pork ribs to the onions. Let them brown for a little while. Buy the pork ribs in a package of six. Freeze the rest and add them to other dishes. Pork ribs are the killer app for beans, greens, and just about everything.

3. Add 2 32oz.  cans of sauce. Let get hot. Add add meatballs, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper

4. Cook at very low heat for 1-1/2 hours. cover ajar.

5. Cook two pounds of pasta. Mix the sauce with the pasta. Put the meatballs in a separate bowl.

alternatives:

If you want to stretch your pasta sauce to feed 20, then add one more 32 oz can of crushed tomatoes and some Italian sausage links cut into 1/3rds.

If you want to eat the meatballs without pasta, then use only one 32 oz. Can of crushed tomatoes and cook the meatballs in a huge frying pan. Serve along side steamed cauliflower and a salad.

Freezing Options:

Always make large quantities of meatballs and sauce, because it freezes so well. You can freeze the meatballs after browning them in the frying pan or after they are fully cooked in the sauce.

 

Published by Laura

20 thoughts on “Recipe: Meatballs and Ziti”

      2. What’s ironic is that I just tested as slightly anemic, so I am eating a little steak now and then (better than iron supplements–ugh).

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  3. Italians have very strong opinions

    You don’t say? Ok, first mistake, don’t call Parmigiano “Parm”. Second mistake, not enough garlic. Be bold! You want enough garlic in there it’ll grow hair on your chest (or at least, that’s what my father always told me. Worked pretty well for him, not so much for me, thank god.). Third mistake: where’s the fennel? Fourth mistake: you need to specify San Marzano tomatoes—no doubt there’s Anglo-Saxons reading this blog that’ll used stewed tomatoes or that sugary Hunt’s shit or some other abomination. San Marzanos, period, and crush ’em yourself. Fifth mistake: where the hell is the oregano? It isn’t proper sugu without oregano. (yes, sugu. It’s always sauce. “Gravy”. Bah.)

    Of course, the proper Italian response to all that is “get outta my kitchen (hold up big knife) or this is gonna be Exhibit A.”

    Nice photos! You should do more food blogging!

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  4. I will stay out of the debates on meatballs and Italian food, but I think Laura’s italian food cred is pretty good. Lovely looking food, and I love the smile on the face of one of your guests. She seems to be loving the food, too.

    BTW, taking those super food pictures requires light. Natural light can work, but not too well for evening meals, except in the summer, when they’re served al fresco. Otherwise, you need lights of some sort.

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  5. From this Italian-American to that Italian-American–your meatballs rock Laura. Is your family of Sicilian origin? (Fennel? Shudder. Onion? Never. Oregano? NoWay.) And, hey, my nickname isn’t Macaroni for nuttin’

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  6. laughing. Italian-Americans feel very strongly about their meatballs.

    There is a lot of room for variation. This is a basic recipe and can be altered to regional tastes. This is the first time that I actually measured things and wrote them down. My grandmother made hers torpedo shaped, not round like these. She also used bread soaked in milk rather than the bread crumbs. My grandfather was from Abruzi, a very pork-heavy region. My grandmother was born in Canada. Her dad was from Napoli and her mom was from Bari, so Southern Italian. Neither used funnel much, so I actually don’t know how to use it. Need to learn.

    Another topic of huge debate is whether or not one should add sugar to the sauce. My family is very firmly in the “no sugar” camp.

    I didn’t even think to specify that one should use proper tomatoes and not the Hunts crap. But excellent point.

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  7. I’ve recently been having a wonderful time reading The Food of Italy by Waverley Root. This guy was a foreign correspondent for USA papers in Europe from 1928 into the 50s, and talks about the regions, their specialties, the Greek origins of some foods, Saracen influence, Romans. If you find it in your prowling through estate sales, grab it!

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  8. Neither used funnel much, so I actually don’t know how to use it. Need to learn.

    Ehh, no big deal. Just….fennel seeds go in the meatballs. Then, stick ’em in the fridge to soak up some of that fennel flavor before you cook ’em. (like you would a marinade). Try it out next time; you’ll be a believer. Glad to hear you’re of the “no sugar” camp. That makes up for the lack of oregano.

    Now for fresh fennel, you cut it up with oranges (blood oranges if you can get ’em), red onion, and some kalamata olives, stir in your salt and pepper, and add a light dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar (just enough to taste really—not much dressing). Sliver the red onions really thin too; you don’t want a heavy onion-y flavor, just enough to add bite to the mix.

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    1. This makes me want to dig up my grandma’s sauce recipe and cook it. Fennel seed goes in sausage, but not meatballs. Oregano doesn’t belong in any sauce. Count me on team “more garlic” in general, but for a meal where most of those eating are kids, going light is probably a good idea.

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  9. MH, if those were all-beef meatballs, I’d agree with you about the fennel, but since the meatballs are part pork, fennel will improve them. No oregano in sauce? Blasphemy! You probably call it “gravy” too. Garlic is pretty popular with kids in my area (even those who aren’t blessed to be Sicilian) because they inevitably end up growing up with it. (If you go to a banquet or dinner where there’s garlic bread, you’ll have to fight the kids for it). But yeah…kids that weren’t raised eating copious amounts of it take awhile to acquire the taste. Point taken

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    1. I call it “sauce” and have never heard anybody call it “gravy”. My grandma called it “supo” or “zupo”.

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  12. As an outsiders to both cultures, I predict that if that the Swedes & Italians got into meatball wars, that the Italians would win.

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  13. You wrote: I’m all prepared for the zombie apocalypse, because I can cook cheaply for large numbers of people. Believe me, everyone is going to need a skill in the compound and I’m all set.

    My daughter and I have had the same conversation about what we would do ( who woulda thought we would bond over the zombie invasion). We would be in the kitchen too.

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