Weekend Cook and Tell: Spaghetti, Meatballs, and Wine
Welcome to the Weekend Cook and Tell. Every Wednesday we pore over the food sections of various national newspapers to create a weekend cooking project. We hope you will cook along with us and share your experiences, recipes, and photos here.
This week's inspiration comes from Bill Daley of the Chicago Tribune. Daley, who specializes in wine and spirits wonders why spaghetti and meatballs have fallen out of favor, while other types have pasta dishes have found their way to the spotlight. While browsing through several wine pairing guides, Daley found that barely any of them address what to drink with this Italian-American classic. Maybe it's due to the fact that spaghetti and meatballs rarely appears in restaurants that don't grace their tables with checkered tablecloths and straw-wrapped Chianti bottles. It might not be the fanciest dish, but man, is it good, especially with a nice bottle of wine.
For this week's challenge we want to hear all about your favorite spaghetti and meatballs recipe. Do you have a secret ingredient for perfect meatballs? Is there something that makes your sauce sing? You don't have to be a nonna to accept this challenge but if yours had a great recipe, we want to hear about it.
We also want you to play sommelier, let us know what you are drinking with your pasta. Daley gives some great recommendations for bottles that don't double as candleholders. Chianti is the classic but don't be afraid to try a Chilean Carmenere or even a Cru Beaujolais. So get out that pasta pot and polish those glasses!
Show us your photos on Photograzing (make sure to include "Cook and Tell" in your submission title) and tell us about your recipes here! If you'd like to blog the experience, please leave a link in the comments below. We'll post a round-up of your photos and recipes next Wednesday.
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14 Comments:
Once again I am early out of the box for the weekend. That's what happens when your retire. We just finished a dinner of linguine with jarred sauce (Barilla) & rinsed the jar into the pot with a bit of an Australian Shiraz. We had Cook's Illustrated beef meatballs - Meh or worse for me. I prefer a mix of ground meats (beef, veal, pork) or just ground turkey meatballs. And I usually make tiny little burger style patties just enough to fill the mouth with a tasty bite.
Now the mystery combination is seasonings, sauteed onion & garlic, grated cheese, eggs, and oatmeal. Never the same twice.
whoot at 7:35PM on 10/07/09
HELLO! I made them LAST weekend.
(With the always wonderful advice from our dear Chiffonade!)
arm1970 at 8:22PM on 10/07/09
I used to make my own pasta sauce. With the all of the slicing and dicing and screwing around, it took all morning. This is back when one of my favorite sayings was "I never order spaghetti when dining out". Well, I've changed my tune , but not my belief that my spaghetti beats the heck out of what the local restaurants have to offer. I have ordered it at several Italian restaurants in my area and I have proved my point to myself. Each new experience was as dissapointing as the last.
Since all of that, I've become lazy and now if it's spaghetti time, I boil a bunch of pasta, brown a pound of chuck and dump a bottle of Bertolli (olive oil and garlic) pasta sauce into the meat, let it simmer for thirty minutes (covered) they ladle it on a bed of the pasta and serve with garlic bread.
No, not fancy, but it sure as hell hits the spot.
tusti at 12:58PM on 10/08/09
Since the ground beef hamburger nytimes article, I will definitely be busting out the meat grinder that attaches to my kitchen aid. My secret (although i'm sure tons of people do this) to a slightly healthier meat ball, is instead of rolling them in bread crumbs and frying them, I like to toss them in the sauce raw and cook them that way (I never liked the way they came out baked). The first time I did this I learned the hard way that I needed a lot of sauce.
What i'll be drinking is my father's homemade red wine. He does all the work at home. If I had to inhale the smell of fermenting wine, I better get to drink some
rumanddiet at 2:34PM on 10/08/09
I come from an Italian American family. I've watched this made and have been making it since a child (I could do it in my sleep). It's one of my family's staple dishes. This is how I learned, with tiny variations of my own.
Meatballs:
The meatballs should be made with 2 parts meat and 1 part other ingredients.
- Mix of Chuck Beef and Ground Pork (1 - 1 1/2 lbs)
- 1 part Breadcrumbs (should be fresh, or purchased from a baker who makes their own - if you have to use store bought, buy a good brand, unseasoned, and use less in the meatballs - bad breadcrumbs can destroy the flavor) and 2 parts Grated Pecorino Cheese
- Tomato Paste, 1 tsp
- Red Wine, a dash or two
- Egg for binding
- High Quality Italian Seasoning, to your taste
- Salt and Pepper
Mix ingredients and with a light touch. Without working meat too much, roll meatballs slightly larger than a golf ball. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan or pot, brown meatballs in batches (do not crowd, get good carmelization). Remove to paper towels and drain all but a tsp. of fat from the pot. Deglaze with red wine if you like.
Add a fresh dash of olive oil to pot. Saute half a chopped onion till translucent, add a clove of chopped garlic, saute 1 minute. Add a small can of tomato paste, saute for a couple minutes. Add one large can tomato puree and another large can whole tomatoes (San Marzano!) a, which you have already crushed with your hands, with juices. Add a dash of red wine and a bay leaf. Pat some of the grease off the meatballs with paper towel and add to sauce. Simmer gently, with top half-way covering sauce pot but not completely, for around 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. Add a tiny dash of sugar at the end. Add a little Italian Seasoning near the end of you like.
Cook spaghetti unitl al dente, drain, return to pot. Put pot with cooked spaghetti on very low heat. Add enough of the fresh cooked sauce (about one ladle) to the pot of spaghetti to just coat the pasta, stir on the low heat for 30 sec to a minute. Turn heat off.
Serve with as much sauce and meatballs as you prefer! And plenty of grated cheese and bread to soak up the yummy sauce! Fyi - I usually make this as a ragu, using sausage and braciole as well as meatballs. Simply brown at the beginning as well and add to sauce with meatballs.
EliEats at 5:46PM on 10/08/09
It's an instant giveaway that "spaghetti and meatballs" would not be a topic posted by an Italian. We rarely if ever eat spaghetti with meatballs - short macaroni is so much better for it. We generally opt for thin, delicate sauces to enjoy with spaghetti.
therealchiffonade at 8:16AM on 10/09/09
Hmm, what about spaghetti and wine but no meatballs? I just posted a recipe for spaghetti with mushrooms, leeks, parmesan and mint...does that count? :)
orchidgirl at 9:26AM on 10/09/09
Spaghetti with clam sauce?
tusti at 11:33AM on 10/09/09
@orchidgirl... Totally!! Sounds yum. @tusti - definitely... if not linguini, spaghetti or spaghettini would do. Angel hair is a little tricky with clam sauce.
What I meant is that the concept of serving spaghetti with meatballs is as foreign to Italians as chicken chow mein is to Chinese people. It's an American creation. I'm not saying it can't be done well, I'm just saying it's not really Italian, though the components that make it up are Italian.
Suffice it to say, I never turn down a dish of spaghetti & meatballs. I just don't usually prepare it - opting for ziti or penne or farfalle with meat like meatballs and sausage.
therealchiffonade at 2:48PM on 10/09/09
Meatballs are as personal as fingerprints, 100 different people could serve you theirs and no two would be the same.
dmcavanagh at 12:02AM on 10/10/09
@therealchiffonade Growing up I always had meatballs with mostacholi or ziti. Spaghetti was for white clam sauce or a tetrazzini.
finsbigfan at 1:10PM on 10/10/09
I find meatballs in most restaurants to be very bland...blah....no flavor, but if you order meat sauce instead, the amount of meat in a serving isn't worth talking about.
This is why I like my own spaghetti
tusti at 1:11PM on 10/10/09
I absolutely love veggies in my sauce. Looks like I'll chop my veggies really small so the veggies aren't bigger than the meatballs... :O
Cassaendra at 1:51PM on 10/11/09
We had linguine with meatballs. The meatballs came out larger than I expected. I was hoping they would shrink down or break off a little. I guess I prefer my meatballs the size of small marbles.
http://cassaendra.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-top-of-linguine.html
Cassaendra at 6:42PM on 10/12/09