Meatballs are the new cupcake. Restaurants devoted entirely to the sphere have sprouted in NYC and in every major city, and high-profile, upscale restaurants have put them on the menu. I can hear guys from Long Island to the Jersey shore saying “Fuggedaboutit! Friggin’ meatballs, I can get at every pizza joint in the tri-state area, so what’s the biggie?”
Ah…but there are meatballs—rubbery, dense, flavorless, smothered in industrial sauce, more breadcrumbs than meat, food service frozen, mystery meat containing, greasy and grisly—and then there are MEATBALLS (angel’s chorus!!) like this one.
I too, was skeptical when I spied this recipe in Mozza, a sometimes daunting cookbook by Nancy Silverton, Chef/Owner of the restaurant in Los Angeles that the book is named for. I say daunting because Silverton is a perfectionist and her recipes do not cut corners, or cut you slack when it comes to the quality of ingredients or techniques needed to achieve her delicious and authentic results. This recipe looked deceptively simple, but the resulting meatball is etherial. I’ll admit I cursed a few of the steps and made a mental note that dredging the meatballs in flour and pan browning them, before braising them in homemade (!) tomato sauce might be skippable. Why not just bake the darn balls on a sheet pan, all at once, and save the calories from flour and the fat from frying them? The answer assaults your senses when you taste one. BECAUSE THOSE DETAILS MAKE A DIFFERENCE! They were perfect.
I ate 5 of them just standing around taking pictures and I won’t say how many later when I served them to my husband and daughter for dinner that evening. Without pasta, by the way, or a big doughy roll wrapped around them either. These meatballs are no side dish. They beg to be the center of the meal. I served them with shaved Parmesan, a slice of buttered semolina toast (just like they do at Mozza) and a fantastic Caponata, also from Mozza, which you will have to wait until another time to hear about.
Warning: the recipe asks you to provide a quart of homemade Passata di Pomodoro, a basic tomato sauce that is a Silverton staple used throughout the book. Since I didn’t heed the advice I always give my students to read through entire recipes before you start to cook, I was surprised by this little detail when I got to it. When I scrambled to make the sauce, I was surprised again by how simple and delicious it turned out, in under 30 minutes, and worth the small delay. I recommend making an enormous batch of this sauce and freezing it in 1/2 quart containers so you’ll always have some on hand.
I often dream of opening a small restaurant with a menu of fresh, house made comfort foods, the kind of foods that everyone loves whether times are good, bad, happy or sad. Food that brings people together over common ground, (I mean who doesn’t like a meatball?) Good solid food without cutting any corners on quality and technique. I know I’d have a version of these meatballs on the menu. Put them on yours and enjoy!
My Oh My Meatballs
adapted from Mozza, by Nancy Silverton
ingredients
3/4 cup diced day-old crustless bread (I used gluten-free, but use your choice here)
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups grated parmesan (freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, preferred), about 6 oz. plus more for finishing
1 medium yellow onion, minced (about 1 cup)
2/3 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 extra-large eggs
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons groung red pepper flakes (plus more to taste)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground veal
6 1/2 ounces pancetta, finely minced (bacon can be substituted)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1 quart tomato sauce (See recipe for my version of Silverton’s quick and delicious sauce)
1 quart low-sodium or homemade chicken stock
3 dried bay leaves
3 dried arbol chiles
Buttered semolina bread toast (optional)
Timing alert: This recipe calls for a tomato sauce (homemade) that takes 45 minutes to prep and cook. Raw meatballs, once formed, are required to cool in the refrigerator for a minimum of one hour or as long as overnight (they can be made to that point a day ahead)