Recipe: Perfecto Meatballs

The poor meatball. So often relegated to childrens’ menus and questionable smorgasbords at discount furniture chains, the meatball is rarely given a real chance to shine. But we know the truth – that with the right ingredients and a little respect, meatballs can be complex, delicate, immensely satisfying and borderline elegant. 

Clearly, we are a family of meatball enthusiasts, from Middle Eastern kofta, heavy with green herbs and deep spices to dreamy Swedish köttbullar, smothered in peppery cream sauce. And, of course, there’s the classic Italian-American; three meats, breadcrumbs, and some parmesan, all rolled into a covetable package. Jake has perfected his version which, when sauteed in just enough butter (a lot), and finished off in a pan of saucy tomatoes, manages to couple a toothsome crust and a melt-in-your-mouth center. Poured over a bowl of bucatini or creamy polenta, this classic peasant dish will make you feel like well-fed royalty.

Perfecto Meatballs

Make the meatballs:
+ ½ cup milk
+ ½ cup bread crumbs
+ 2 eggs
+ 2 tbsp parmesan
+ ½ lb veal
+ ½ lb beef
+ ½ lb hot Italian pork sausage
+ 2 tbsp olive oil
+ 2 tbsp butter

1. Combine milk and bread crumbs in a small bowl until the all of the milk is absorbed.
2. In a large bowl, use your hands to mix the three meats with the eggs, parmesan, and bread and milk mixture. Make sure it is well blended but don’t over mix, as the meatballs will lose their fluffiness.
3. Place a large saute pan on high heat with the oil and butter.
4. Form the meat mixture into 1.5 – 2 inch rounds, and brown in small batches. Do not overcrowd pan.
5. Brown meatballs until they have a deep brown crusty exterior, a couple minutes on each side. One whole batch should take about 5-7 minutes – the balls don’t need to be 100 percent cooked at this point. When done, put meatballs aside.

Make the sauce:
+ (2) 28 oz. cans of whole peeled tomatoes
+ 2 medium yellow onions, chopped
+ 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1. Using the drippings from the meatballs, saute the onions and garlic in the same pan until translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes, roughly crushing each tomato with your hand or a large wooden spoon.
3. Bring sauce to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the meatballs back into the sauce and cook for another 15 minutes.
5. Pour over pasta or polenta and serve with some grated parmesan and pepper.

Note: This recipe originally appeared on RuralIntelligence.com on Dec 7, 2014. It's been back-dated here on our blog so that it falls, seasonally, in the right place.   

Recipe: Fettuccine with Green Tomato Sauce

In many ways the summer can feel like one long build-up to that first bright-red, juicy tomato from the garden. For months we spend warm evenings strolling through the garden, checking on the state of our staked fruit, patiently waiting for mid-August. And then! We gorge - tomato sandwiches, caprese salad, salsa, fresh tomato sauce, grilled tomatoes, tomato and cucumber salad, canned tomatoes, tomato jam, you name it! 

 

But this summer we planted our seedlings a little late. So here we are, in late-August with nothing but a few light-green orbs. Luckily - while nothing compares to that sweetly satisfying first bite of a big red - the truth is that there are plenty of delicious things to do with a green tomato.

With a green tomato’s tart and firm flesh, there is a world beyond the classic fried side (not that there’s anything wrong with fried green tomatoes!). One popular option, seen often in kosher-style delis, is to go the pickle route. But in our house we like to do something else: green tomato sauce over pasta. Sauteed with onions, some cream, and bits of bacon (duh!), green tomatoes are the perfectly acidic base for a mid-summer-going-on-fall sauce.

Fettuccine with Green Tomato Sauce

+ 1 lb bacon, cut into small chunks
+ 3 lbs green tomatoes, cut into small chunks
+ 1 large onion, sliced
+ ½ cup cream
+ 1 lb fettuccine

1. Fry the bacon in a large saute pan. When done, remove bacon and set aside, reserving the bacon fat.
2. Saute the onions over medium-high heat until translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook for about one hour, or until the the tomatoes are soft. Meanwhile boil water for pasta.
3. Cook the pasta and drain. Around this time, add the cream to the sauce and remove from heat.
4. In a serving bowl, pour the sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with bacon.

Recipe: Pasta Primavera

Living in the city, winter seems to transition into spring in the blink of an eye. One day there is slush on the trees and the next, branches sprout buds and curbside daffodils burst open. We used to wait impatiently until the first crates of fiddle-head ferns and bunches of ramps and asparagus showed up at the Union Square market - in stock for a few weeks and gone for another 48. Now, out in New Marlborough, the first signs of the season sprout up slowly around us - first with sightings of silvery alliums bordering swamps in the neighborhood, then with little fern coils pushing their way out of soil alongside the road on our evening walk, and then with the thin purple and green stalks bursting out of the dirt in our garden. It's an exciting way to experience our first spring back in the country, and infinitely more affordable.

To celebrate these early greens, we decided to make a true pasta primavera. Often, primavera is associated with mediocre red-sauce Italian restaurants serving soggy noodles covered with a heap of chopped vegetables - bell peppers, zucchini, yellow summer squash - found on the bottom shelf of a walk-in refrigerator. The problem is, these vegetables are neither the first of the season (prima) nor are they green (vera). But when it come's to seasonal produce - if you've got it, flaunt it!

In both our ramp and fiddle-head ferns posts, we mention how perfectly suited they are to a bed of pasta. We used that as a jumping off point for this recipe but it could be easily adapted to any of the other wonderful spring greens: garlic scapes, spring onions, pea shoots, nettles, dandelion greens, and arugula. Because we are lazy, we stuck with what was at hand in our own backyard, but that doesn't mean you should.

Pasta Primavera

+ 1 lb of linguine

+ 1 bunch of asparagus, ends trimmed off and cut into one-inch lengths

+ 1 pint of fiddle-head ferns, washed – or substitute with any of the greens listed above

+ 1 bunch of ramps, bulbs trimmed removed from the greens – or, try garlic scapes!

+ ¼ cup of bread crumbs

+ 3 tbsp. of olive oil plus ¼ cup

+ 1/3 cup grated pecorino

+ salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

2. Pour 3 tbsp of olive oil in a medium pan and turn to medium-high heat.

3. When the olive oil is shimmering and just about to smoke add the ramp bulbs.

4. After a couple of minutes, throw in the fiddle-heads and asparagus.

5. Boil linguine according the directions on the package.

6. When pasta is is done, drain and add to a bowl with the ramp greens (and/or arugula/pea shoots), breadcrumbs, and pecorino. Toss thoroughly and finish with a little more olive oil and salt.

Serve immediately

Recipe: Southern Style Mac 'n' Cheese

We LOVE macaroni and cheese - and really, who doesn’t? The way we see it there are two styles of creamy, pasta-y goodness. There's the French style with a thick, mellow bechamel base and a mix of velvety cheeses and then there's the classic Southern style - bright and sharp, made with cheddar and traditional elbows. Generally we refuse to take sides, but the other night we were really looking for some down home cookin'. 

 

A few years ago we visited Nashville and, predictably, spent most of our time in "meat and 3" spots (in which mac 'n' cheese basically counts as a vegetable) where we had a bit of a culinary revelation. What really set apart their version of the dish was how deeply tangy it was, a result of finely grated onion and sour cream. To replicate it, we turned to one of our favorite Southern cookbooks, The Gift of Southern Cooking, bought some sharp cheddar from Beecher’s, macaroni from Eataly, and one of every dairy product Ronnybrook produces. To go with the mac we cooked up some Flying Pigs pork chops and put together a salad - to add some color and "reduce" our risk of heart attack.

Southern Style Mac 'n' Cheese

Adapted from The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock

+ 8 oz. macaroni

+ 12 oz sharp cheddar (6 oz cubes, 6 oz grated)

+ 2 tbsp, plus 1 tsp flour

+ 2/3 cup sour cream

+ 2 eggs, lightly beaten

+ 1/3 cup grated onion

+ 1 1/2 cups half and half

+ 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

+ 1 ½ tsp salt

+ 1 ½ tsp dry mustard

+ ¼ tsp pepper

+ a pinch cayenne

+ ¼ tsp of freshly grated nutmeg

+ 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Cook the macaroni in large a pot until just tender (a minute or two before the box says). Drain well and transfer to a buttered 9 x 13 baking dish.

2. Mix in the cubed cheddar and preheat oven to 350.

3. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add sour-cream and the eggs, whisk until well blended.

4. Whisk in onion, cream, half and half, and Worcestershire until blended.

5. Pour mix over the macaroni and sprinkle top with grated cheese.

6. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the custard sets but still jiggles. Finish under broiler for a minute to brown the top. Let cool for ten minutes.

Serves 6 (with leftovers!)

Recipe: Pappardelle with Ricotta & Squash

When combined, certain foods become a holy and amazing force. Peanuts and chocolate... cheese, ham, and mayo... brussels sprouts, bacon, and apples... ricotta, winter squash, and sage... The latter, Silka has been jonesing for pretty consistently over the last few weeks. First we tried to satiate the craving with a pizza. We bought dough at Eataly, picked up some delicata, riccota and sage from the market and put it all together. But it just wasnt enough. The ingredients were overwhelmed by the dough, the delicata wasn't quite right and the piney flavor of the sage wasn’t pronounced enough. 

Never to give up on a culinary dream, we decided to try again but this time stripping it down to the essentials. After realizing that we needed something simple like pasta as a base, we got more fresh ricotta, sage, and a butternut squash. We roasted the squash in large chunks with butter to bring out it's full umami and we fried the sage, filling the kitchen a woodsy smell. When we mixed it all together - the ricotta just melting, the squash breaking down with the crunchy sage, the al dente pasta's water thickening everything up a little - we knew we'd finally gotten it right!

Pappardelle with Ricotta & Squash 

+ ¾ lbs fresh pappardelle

+ 1 lb fresh ricotta

+ 1 medium butternut squash, cut into 1-inch chunks

+ 2 tablespoons butter

+ 1 large bunch of sage (or 1 loose cup)

+ vegetable oil

+ salt and pepper

1. In a large roasting pan, spread the squash out in one layer. Dot with butter, sprinkle with salt, and roast at 400 degrees for about 1 hour.

2. In an unheated heavy duty pan, pour the vegetable oil so it is about ¼ inch deep. Place pan on high heat and let heat up for a minute or so. Put about half of the sage in the oil and let sage fry for about a minute. Remove the sage and put it on a paper towel to drain. Repeat with remaining sage.

3. Boil salted water for the pasta in a large pot and cook pasta to the package's directions. When cooked, drain the pasta and put in serving bowl. Toss with the fried sage, roasted squash and ricotta. Salt and pepper to taste.

Tools of the Trade: Standing Mixer with Pasta Attachment

One of the main work horses of our kitchen is our cobalt blue Kitchen Aid standing mixer. It's probably the most expensive tool we have, but it's also the most versatile. Silka uses it for baking (kneading, mixing, whipping) all of the time, while Jake uses it to make sauces and homemade sausage. We'll eventually write love letters to all of it's many uses but, for now we wanted to focus on our current favorite: making fresh pasta!

Let's admit it, more often than not we're too lazy to make our own pasta. And since Eataly is a few blocks away - a.k.a. the pasta mecca of the world, save for... well, Italy - we usually just pick some up. But actually, fresh pasta is as easy to make as it is rewarding. Plus, no shopping! As long as you have some flour and eggs, you can make pasta. And with a standing mixer, all you'll need is a little patience and a few attachments. 

We hadn't made fresh pasta since our discovery, and subsequent addiction to, Cayuga Pure Organics All Purpose Flour, so we were curious to see how it would work as a substitute for All Purpose. The color would definitely be nuttier (which is fine by us) but we were a little worried about the texture and flavor. In the end, while it did take a little more flour than usual, this was the best pasta dough we've ever made! It had the most amazing elastic snap and the flavor of the pasta was sweeter and more hearty without tasting like whole wheat pasta. 

Generally, if we're taking the time to make our own pasta we make a super simple sauce. It's the best way to show off the pasta and, come on, we just spent all that time making pasta! This time we made one of our all-time favorite simple sauces: cacio e pepe, or cheese and pepper (plus butter, olive oil and pasta water). While it's traditional to use Parmesan or Pecorino, we bought some Consider Bardwell’s Equinox which we often use as an aged Italian cheese substitute. It an almost season-less dish, but it was perfect for this early fall evening.

Fresh Pasta

Adapted from Marcella Hazan

+ 4 eggs

+ 2 cups All Purpose flour (plus more if needed)

1. Mound the flour in the mixer bowl and scoop out a deep well in the center. Crack the eggs into the well. 

2. With the paddle attachment, beat lightly until the eggs are fully incorporated into the flour. Turn the beater up a little for for another minute, and test the texture. If it feels sticky, add flour. When you think the dough is ready (i.e. does not need any more flour) wash your hands, drying them completely, and plunge your thumb into the dough. If it comes out clean with no sticky matter on it, no more flour is needed. If your dough still doesn’t seem quite right, it probably will after you knead it. 3. Switch out the paddle attachment for the dough hook. Knead for at least 10 minutes. Following Mario Batali’s advice we like the leave it on kneading for about 30 minutes. The dough should be “as smooth as baby skin.” Let the kneaded pasta sit for 20 minutes. 

4. Attach the rolling attachment to the front of the stand mixer. Cut the dough into 6 equal parts. Begin by putting one part of dough through the widest setting on the roller. Fold it into thirds like an envelope and feed the narrow end through the widest setting again. Repeat 2 or 3 times, then lay the strip of dough on a dish towel. Repeat with the remaining 5 parts. 

5. Once all the dough has been through the widest setting, decrease the roller width a notch and put them all through again. Continue to decrease the rollers’ thickness, passing the dough through until it is to your desired thickness. We go to the arbitrarily-named setting “6,” which is the third-thinnest setting on our roller. As you roll out the sheets place them on a cutting board or baking sheet and sprinkle flour between the layers so they don't stick to each other. The gradual progression from thick to thin is, Hazan says, one of the things that makes homemade pasta so good. So resist the urge to speed things up by skipping some of the intermediate thicknesses.

6. When you have rolled out all of your dough, attach the desired cutting attachment. As you run the dough through the attachment, hang it over a noddle dryer, the back of a chair or the machine itself.

7. Cook the pasta immediately in lots of boiling salted water for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes or until it is al dente. Drain and serve as soon as possible. 

Note: Each machine is different so read your machine's manual to better understand how your attachments work.

Cacio e Pepe

Adapted from Mario Batali and Smitten Kitchen

+ 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

+ 1 pound fresh or dry pasta, like spaghetti or linguine

+ 2 tablespoons butter

+ 4 ounces Pecorino or Parmesan cheese, finely grated plus more for serving

+ 2-3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, plus more for serving

+ 3/4 cup of reserved pasta water 

+ salt

1. Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons salt.

2. In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over high heat until it is almost smoking. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the boiling water according until al dente. 

3. Drain pasta after reserving the cooking liquid, and add to the saute pan with the oil. Add the butter, cheese and pepper and toss over high heat for 1 minute. Grate plenty of cheese and black pepper over, and add salt if necessary.

Recipe: Last Days of Summer Pasta

While we're excited about Autumn and everything it brings - crisp air, tart apples, hardy squash, sweet dark greens, fires in the fireplace - it's hard to let go of summer market goodies. Luckily, there are still a few weeks left to pick up the remnants of late summer produce.

The other night we were sitting around, tired and hungry and - as we usually are on off-market days - without a dinner plan. (We're not great at planning ahead.) There wasn't much in the fridge or pantry with the exception of a few staples and the usual condiments. But we did have dried pasta, oil, butter, garlic, cheese and a mixed-variety pint of cherry tomatoes. After grabbing some basil from the terrace, we threw everything together in a pan and 10 minutes later we were sitting down to one of our last summer meals.

Pasta with Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes

+ ½ pound of pasta

+ 1 pint of cherry tomatoes

+ 8 garlic cloves, sliced thickly

+ a bunch of basil

+ 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

+ 1 tablespoons butter

+ salt and pepper to taste

+ Pecorino

1. Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta.

2. Pour the olive oil in a medium-sized pan and put the pan on medium-high heat. When the oil starts to get hot and shimmery, throw in the garlic. After a few minutes - when the garlic is just starting to turn golden - throw in the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. At this point you'll want to put the pasta in the boiling water. 

3. When the tomatoes have started to burst and look wrinkly, toss in the butter and the basil. Remove from heat.

3. Drain the Pasta and combine the tomato mixture and pasta in a bowl. Grate Pecorino over top and serve.

Serves 2

Recipe: Carbonara with Fettucine

Carbonara is the best meal because it's cheap, easy, and filling. It's one of those things we make when we don't feel like going shopping but want a nice home-cooked meal, which is- let's face it- often. The basic ingredients are eggs, cheese, bacon, and pasta, all things we always have laying around. We generally try to make our own pasta, but this night we were pressed for time so we ran over to Eataly (another place we're lucky to live by) for some fresh Fettuccine. We're not going to lie- fresh pasta makes it SO much better. But this dish is fantastic with boxed pasta too. 

Because the recipe is so simple, we had fun improvising with the ingredients. We had some bacon ends in the freezer (the not-so-pretty-but-cheaper-and-just-as-tasty part of bacon) so we chopped it up into nice chunks of lardon, which added great texture. We also wanted to use a local cheese, so we tried an aged cows milks cheese from Cato Corner Farm called Bloomsday. It was deliciously nutty and a lovely substitute for the traditional Italian cheese. If you're unsure, it's always a good idea to ask the cheese monger- they know what they're talkin' about, and more often than not they'll hand over a few samples!

All in all this meal took about 10 minutes, from start to finish. We'd say: 10 minutes well spent!  

Carbonara with Fettuccine

Adapted from Saveur.com

+ 4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 

+ 4 oz. bacon ends - we got ours from Flying Pigs Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket
+ 2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper, plus more
   to taste
+ 1 3⁄4 cups finely grated Parmesan, or similar - we used "Bloomsday" cheese from Cato Corner Farm
+ 1 egg plus 3 yolks - because they will be eaten raw-ish, it's best to get farm fresh eggs

+ salt, to taste
+ 1 lb fresh fettuccine

1. Boil water for the pasta while you prepare the rest of the recipe.
2. Cut the bacon ends up to whatever size you like. We like them on the thicker side- 1 inch strips and ¼ thick. Fry the bacon to your desired crispiness and in the last two minutes throw in 2 tsp of black pepper and a dash of red chili flakes. 

3. Remove the bacon from the pan, along with a little bit of fat, and put it in the dish you'll be serving the pasta in. (You can pour the remainder of the bacon fat into a small Pyrex container or old coffee tin and keep it in the fridge for the next time you need to fry something up.) 

4. In a separate bowl whisk one egg with the three egg yolks and stir in the grated cheese. Pour that mixture into the serving bowl with the bacon.
5. Cook the pasta, making sure to pay special attention to the directions on the package. (Fresh pasta only takes 3 minutes or so, while boxed pasta takes around 8 depending on the shape.) 
6. Drain the pasta when it's ready, reserving a little water. Mix the pasta into the serving bowl and toss with the rest of the ingredients. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Feel free to add a little of the reserved pasta water if you feel the sauce needs thinning out. 

Serves 4-ish.