Meatball Salad

I made meatballs on Sunday using the air fryer. 

I also made Marcella Hazen's Butter and Onion Tomato Sauce.

. 
Put the two together and make a salad.

Pasta with Slow Cooker Meatballs

Dinner was just delicious. Slow Cooker Meatballs! Amazing!

I made the meatballs on Sunday. I had other things I needed to get done and did not have the time to spend in the kitchen. So I googled slow cooker meatballs and it was quite easy.

I opened a can of crushed tomatoes and a jar of Rao's Marinara Sauce and put that in the slow cooker, heating it up. Yes I used jarred sauce. 

I made my usual meatball recipe.

THE MEATBALL RECIPE - I tear up a couple pieces of bread, either a roll or Italian bread and add that with small amount of milk to a bowl and let it sit. You want the bread to get mushy. Squeeze out as much milk as you can from the bread.

Add the meat, I use beef and pork and veal, or just beef and pork. One egg, Parmesan Cheese, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix it gently with your hands and shape into what ever size meatball you like. Yes I use a kitchen scale so they are all the same size.

After the sauce was heated I put the meatballs into the slow cooker covered it and walked away for about 4 hours. The slow cooker was set on high.

Tonight made the pasta and enjoyed the meatballs.

 

Stuffed Shell with Meatballs

Wow! What a nice dinner. I just boiled the shells and added the filling. The filling was ricotta, egg, parmesan and mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper. I had the meatballs and sauce in the freezer. There were 2 shells left which will be my lunch tomorrow.

Chorizo Meatballs with Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

For Christmas I received Cooking Like A Master Chef by Graham Elliot. As I flipped through the book the first recipe that jumped out at me was Chorizo Meatballs. The recipe included a Spicy Tomato Sauce but I knew what sauce I wanted to use, Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter. 

 

I had some pasta that I had ordered from Borgatti's in the Bronx. Spaghetti alla Chitarra. It was the prefect pasta for the sauce and the meatballs.

I did make a couple of adjustments to the meatball recipe. The original recipe called for chives. I did not have any. It called for 2 Chorizo Sauasages. One was plenty. It called for 2 eggs. I went with one and the meatball mix was prefect to handle. The recipe also called for sumac and cayenne pepper. Didn't add it. And it called for lemon zest. Last year Chris got me another cookbook that called for lemon in their meatball recipe. I added it and we did not like it. So I left out the too.

My version of Chorizo Meatballs-

Ingredients-
3 tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 small onion, diced
 8 oz. ground pork shoulder
 8 oz. lean ground beef
1 Spanish chorizo sausages, casings removed, sausage meat minced
1 eggs
2 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/2 c.)
1/2 c. dried breadcrumbs
1/4 c. red wine
1 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt

Method-

In a large skillet, heat about 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. When hot, saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent and softened. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, mix pork, beef, sausage, egg, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, wine, parsley,  and a little salt. Add cooled onion and garlic. Using your hands, work mixture until ingredients are well mixed. 

Season with salt. Roll meat between your palms to make 20 small meatballs, about the size of walnuts.

In another large skillet, spread remaining oil (you only need a film of oil to coat the skillet) and heat. Brown meatballs on all sides and transfer to baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through.

And I made scones for breakfast today. I found this recipe on Local Kitchen Blog. These were delicious!

Ginger Orange Scones from Local Kitchen Blog-

Ingredients-

2 cups (9 oz) whole grain all-purpose flour
1 cup + 2 tbsp (4.5 oz) whole wheat pastry flour
2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup turbinado sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
Zest from 2 medium oranges (about 2 tbsp)
6 oz (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, frozen for at least 30 minutes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
3/4  cup chilled  milk, plus extra for glazing

Method-

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (375 F convection).

In a large bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; whisk for approximately 1 minute until well blended.  Transfer flour mixture to the bowl of a food processor.  Add butter cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Mix orange zest and chopped ginger into flour mixture.

Gradually add the liquid, tossing with a fork until moist clumps form.  Stop adding liquid when it seems the dough will stay together; if the dough is too sticky, the scones will lose their shape upon cooking. If the dough seems crumbly and will not hold a shape, add more liquid 1 tbsp at a time.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.  Knead briefly to bind the dough; about 4 turns should be enough.  Cut the dough in half, and form each portion into a 1- to 2-inch thick round.  Cut the round into 8 triangular pieces with a sharp knife or pastry cutter. Transfer wedges to a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet, spacing approximately 2 inches apart. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.

Using a pastry brush, glaze the tops of each wedge with the extra milk. Sprinkle a small amount of turbinado sugar on top for added crunch.

Bake for 10 minutes (8 minutes convection), then turn pans in oven 180 degrees.  Continue to bake for 10-15 minutes (7-12 minutes convection), until the tops of the scones are golden brown and they feel somewhat firm to the touch.

Transfer to wire racks to cool.  Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Pancetta Wrapped Polpettone In Red Wine Tomato Sauce

Other possible blog titles - "I have had dreams like this."
Or "Winner!"
Yeah this is a meatball wrapped in bacon. What's not to like about that. I found this on Italian Food Forever. With a pound of meat you make 4 giant meatballs. You wrap them in Pancetta or bacon, I did them both ways because I ran out of Pancetta! You brown the meatballs in olive oil then you make the sauce and put the meatballs in the sauce and let them cook. So darn easy and so amazingly delicious. The only part I had trouble with was turning the giant meatballs to brown on all sides.
Click Here for the recipe and plan on spending a lot of time on this site, lots of good recipes there.


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Risotto With Chicken and Arugula

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So what did we have for dinner 3 years ago?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Squash and White Bean Soup

Meatball Pizza and Multigrain No Knead Bread

Remember a couple of posts ago I mentioned the make ahead meatballs? Well tonight I used up the rest of the batch. The pizza dough was from the Jim Lahey book, My Bread: The Revolutionary No Knead Bread Method.

It was a fun day in the kitchen here. Yesterday I received the new issue of Bon Appetit. There was an article about eggs and there was a recipe from Thomas Keller for the Perfect Poached Egg. On Sundays we have eggs for breakfast and read the Sunday papers. Egg sandwiches, scrambled, or poached. So I had to try this method. Okay it was the perfect poached egg.

Oh and the bread! I found this on the Culinate eblast. Multi-grain No Knead Bread. It is similar to the No Knead bread from Jim Lahey. The results were quite amazing! With a recipe like this I can see no reason why someone would not bake their own bread. It is a perfect submission for Bake Your Own Bread -

And Lucy was quite the kitchen cat today....