Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Meatballs Artandcolour Style

Comfort Food for a Snowy, Wintry Day

Basil from last summer's garden. Boy do I miss being able to go outside every single day and pick fresh basil! I used it in almost everything, including scrambled eggs!

R E C I P E S — When I knew that I was going to be socked in with the large snowstorm currently blowing around outside, I decided I'd make a nice tomato sauce and some meatballs. I normally read a lot of cookbooks and recipes online, but I almost never actually cook with recipes. I like to "wing it" when I'm in the kitchen, throwing a bit of this, a pinch of that, as I prepare food. The fact I'm only cooking for myself has made me almost fearless by now, as I don't have to take anyone else's tastes into consideration. Today I decided to make up a new meatball concoction. All amounts are "close to" what I used, as I don't really measure things either, lol. They really came out well!

Italian-ish Meatballs by artandcolour
  • 3/4 lb lean ground beef (I used 93/7)
  • 3/4 lb bulk Italian pork sausage (I used a local New Haven brand known for its low-fat content)
  • 1/2 large sweet white onion
  • 1 cup sliced mushrooms ( Baby bellas, almost always on sale!)
  • 1 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 1/2 cup oil-cured Italian black olives
  • 1 cup whole milk Ricotta cheese
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (use the inexpensive kind in the green can, and save the better quality for use on top of the pasta. I save money everywhere I can!)
  • 2 cups Panko, the coarser Japanese variety of bread crumbs, evenly divided into two individual cups
  • 2 tbsp dried fennel seeds
  • 2 tbsp dried oregano
  • 2 tbsp crushed black peppercorns
  • 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
Mix the beef and sausage together fully, I use my hands to make sure there aren't chunks of sausage and chunks of beef.

Roughly chop the onion and put into a food processor with the steel blade attached. Add the sliced mushrooms, basil and black olives and pulse until everything is finely chopped. I know that chefs and the Food Network seem to favor "chunky" or "roughly chopped" ingredients these days, but I prefer an even texture in my foods. I really don't like to take a bite of a meatball and have it taste like olives, and have the next bite taste more like onions or basil. I like every bite to have a uniform flavor, so I make sure every ingredient is the same consistency as the ground meat. To each his own, though!

Add the mixture from the food processor into the bowl of combined ground meats. Add one cup of the Panko breadcrumbs, and then add the rest of the ingredients, and mix together. Again, I use my hands to make sure everything is mixed together evenly. The Ricotta and the egg will help the mixture moisten so it mixes well, and the Panko will help it bulk up and hold together.

Form the meatballs. Mine were about two inches in width, and I made fourteen of them from this recipe. Roll the meatballs in the remaining Panko for a crust, and place them in a baking pan that has had olive oil drizzled on the bottom.

Bake at 350° for one hour, turning over the meatballs at the 1/2 hour mark. When they come out of the oven, you can eat them as is, or add them to your tomato sauce while it's cooking. 

10 comments:

  1. Yea!!!! 24 votes, come on Vote for Casey, vote for Casey!!!!!!!!

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  2. Thanks for the recipe, Casey. I will give it a try.

    Man, somehow I managed to get huge type here and I can't undo it. Anyone know what to do?

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  3. Huge type where? it's fine in the comments. On your blog?

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  4. Ladies and gentleman, met the new renaissance man of the 21st C. He gardens, photoshops, collects, photographs,jokes, writes and makes us hungry.
    I don't know what gift your not lacking, lol

    Your the best!

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  5. WOODY, CASEY WOULD MAKE A GREAT HOUSE HUSBAND.

    LOVE THE MEATBALL RECIPE.I NEVER HEARD OF PUTTY OLIVES IN MEATBALLS BUT WHY NOT. I'LL ALSO TRY IT SOON. ONE THING I HATE ARE LITTLE TINY MEATBALLS THAT SOME PEOPLE MAKE. MY MOM ALWAY SAID IF YOUR GOING TO SERVE CAKE. SERVE CAKE THE SAME FOR PIE.SOME PEOPLE CUT A PIECE OF PIE LIKE THEY WERE GOING TO FEED A BABY.
    SO WHAT TIME IS SUPPER?

    GRANNY

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  6. No the type is here on my screen. I hit something and now I can't figure out how to undo it. Grrrrr

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  7. when all else fails, i shut down and restart. Could you have inadvertently hit a keystroke that enlarged your display font? sometimes a key like "alt" in combination with the + sign will do that. Is there a pull down menu for screen view, or just view?

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  8. thanks, Woody. I'm a complete disaster at a lot of things, I just don't write about them, lol.

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  9. Thanks, casey, you are so smart. I must have done it when I was on my blog it showed up there as well. Everything is fine now. Ms. Fumble Fingers lol

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  10. not terribly smart, I've just been working on a mac since 1985. I've made every mistake in the book a hundred times, lol. When I was interested in building my career, I took a lot of temp jobs and freelance jobs, to get as much experience in as many offices as I could. I never wanted to ask questions or appear like I didn't know what I was doing, so I worked all night most nights with the manuals and tutorials. Most imporantly, I learned to turn the sound off on any Mac I used so that the 'error" warnings wouldn't be audible, rofl. THAT's the key to it all really!

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