aaaaaaaah, so..... I'm back to "simple is good."
spaghetti and meat balls. how can anything go wrong?
oh dear, way too many ways.....
this draws raves from the peanut gallery:
it's all the the wrist....
80/20 ground beef
salt
fresh ground black pepper
minced fresh onion
one egg per pound of beef
mix/mash it all together.
make meat balls slightly smaller than a golf ball - two biters I call them - lop in half with a fork, just right bite size.
cast iron pan; 1 tbsp butter
place meatballs in pan; not too crowded
medium high - need to brown but not burn
add a dollop of olive oil if the pan dries up.
using two (wooden) spoons, rotate meatballs 180 degrees to brown opposite sides.
plunk the pan into a 300'F oven for 40 minutes to cook the meatballs through.
remove meatballs from pan; drain oil & leftover goodies/fond thru a fine strainer. you'll get about 4-5 tbsps of 'schufft' per pound of beef - it's soft onions bits that fell out of the mix plus coagulated proteins that oozed out of the meat.
The Sauce:
nothing special needed - I use Ragu Mushroom. in a sauce pan, heated to a vigorous bubble, turn down heat to low simmer.
plunk in the meatball pan "drippings"
start the pasta cooking - for dry pasta I use 12 minutes
at 'same time' put the meatballs in the sauce to warm through.
grate some block Parmesan.
bingo. all done.
the trick is in browning the meatballs and then also capturing the pan solids to flavor the sauce.
simple, dumb, fool proof. you'll wonder why all those recipes call for 15-100 different herbs & spices.
spaghetti and meat balls. how can anything go wrong?
oh dear, way too many ways.....
this draws raves from the peanut gallery:
it's all the the wrist....
80/20 ground beef
salt
fresh ground black pepper
minced fresh onion
one egg per pound of beef
mix/mash it all together.
make meat balls slightly smaller than a golf ball - two biters I call them - lop in half with a fork, just right bite size.
cast iron pan; 1 tbsp butter
place meatballs in pan; not too crowded
medium high - need to brown but not burn
add a dollop of olive oil if the pan dries up.
using two (wooden) spoons, rotate meatballs 180 degrees to brown opposite sides.
plunk the pan into a 300'F oven for 40 minutes to cook the meatballs through.
remove meatballs from pan; drain oil & leftover goodies/fond thru a fine strainer. you'll get about 4-5 tbsps of 'schufft' per pound of beef - it's soft onions bits that fell out of the mix plus coagulated proteins that oozed out of the meat.
The Sauce:
nothing special needed - I use Ragu Mushroom. in a sauce pan, heated to a vigorous bubble, turn down heat to low simmer.
plunk in the meatball pan "drippings"
start the pasta cooking - for dry pasta I use 12 minutes
at 'same time' put the meatballs in the sauce to warm through.
grate some block Parmesan.
bingo. all done.
the trick is in browning the meatballs and then also capturing the pan solids to flavor the sauce.
simple, dumb, fool proof. you'll wonder why all those recipes call for 15-100 different herbs & spices.