Three Cheers for Maryanne

Hello Everyone

Some of you RecipePhile old timers may remember the recipes I sent along that my mother made while I was growing up. Veal Meatballs and Marinara Sauce. An old friend of the family made these recipes and was disappointed in the outcome. She told me that the sauce was too herby. After reviewing the recipe very closely, I noticed a few errors. First of all, the translation from MS Word to email does not always work that well so there were multiple dingbat characters throughout the recipe. I also noticed that I had three tablespoons of herbs as opposed to three teaspoons of herbs in the sauce. Please keep in mind that you can always add more later and you should always adjust recipes to your liking and always tell me when something does not taste right.

Three cheers to Maryanne for catching the mistake and pointing it out. The revised recipes are below.

Have a great week.

Michael
"Always remember that food is about more than eating...it is about thinking, buying, preparing, enjoying and most importantly... sharing."

Marinara Sauce
This is a very basic but very delicious marinara sauce. Once it has fully cooked (it takes about 30 minutes cooking time and about 20 minutes prep time) you can get a little creative. In our house, we usually added about a handful (1) of Parmigiano Reggiano, Veal Meatballs and fresh parsley. We‚'ve also been known to add a gremolata (2), giving the sauce a very distinctive and interesting flavor. The key here is to be creative with what you add. But remember that when being creative you should test your ideas with a little sauce on the side. Note that this freezes very well and is enough sauce for about ten plates of pasta.

1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 small yellow onion minced (about a 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup white wine
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
2 large cans of La Valle (3), San Marzano peeled tomatoes (you can
substitute with Hunts whole tomatoes)
3 tsp Italian seasoning (4)

Open both cans of tomatoes and place in blender. Blend until the whole tomatoes are chunky smooth.

Cover the bottom of a heavy saucepan with the olive over medium heat. Add the garlic and sweat (5) for a minute or so. Add the onions and sweat for about two or three minutes, stirring constantly and ensuring the garlic is not browning. Add the dry spices. Add the white wine and let cook down for about two or three minutes. Add the salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Serve over pasta with a sprinkle of Reggiano (6).

Veal Meatballs
There are really no words to describe how incredible these meatballs are. Many Italians will tell you that their mom makes the best meatballs on the planet. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. My mother, who happens to be German and French, not Italian, has the meatball world all wrapped up with this incredible recipe. Look no further as you have finally found the perfect meatball. This recipe should make about 12 meatballs.

1 lb ground veal
1/2 lb ground sirloin
1/4 lb ground pork
2 slices of white bread soaked in whole milked, squeezed out and crumbled
into meat mixture
3 cloves minced garlic
1 small yellow onion minced (about a 1/2 cup)
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
2 eggs
1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped, fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly, using your hands. Make sure that all of the ingredients are evenly distributed. Roll meatballs into 1-3 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Do this until the mixture is gone. Place in the oven for about 10 minutes and then under the broiler until the tops of the meatballs are golden brown. Now put the meatballs in the sauce and cook for approximately one hour. Serve sauce and meatballs over pasta with a little bit of Reggiano and fresh pepper. Or let completely cool at room temperature and place in the refrigerator.

FoodNoteworthies

(1) A handful in my mother's world usually amounts to approximately 1/2 cup (depending on the size of your hands of course).

(2) Gremolata is garnish that gives just about any dish a very distinctive and spicy (but not hot) flavor. Take one clove of garlic (minced), the zest of 1 lemon and 1/3 cup chopped parsley and mix and chop them together. If you like anchovy you can add 1 anchovy as well. This is a great condiment for sauces usually added right before serving.

(3) La Valle tomatoes are a new thing for my mother. She used to swear by Hunt's but now she has moved on to a newer, imported Italian tomato from the region of San Marzano. If you cannot find these great tomatoes, you can order a case of them rather inexpensively online.

(4) My mother swears by her Italian Seasoning that she buys from the Giant Eagle (a popular grocery chain in Pittsburgh, PA). It is likely an expensive spice mixture brought to you by McCormick.

(5) Sweat is a word that is used by my mother in the kitchen and often in relation to onions and garlic. In Craig Claiborne's food encyclopedia (Craig Claiborne's New York Times Company Food Encyclopedia, 1985, p. 436) it is defined as follows -- The word sweat in cooking references, such as sweat the onions is a translation of a commonly used culinary term in France. The French is suer les oignons. It means adding the onions to the saucepan, generally using butter or oil and cooking the onions without browning them. So my mother's background really helped in this instance.

(6) Reggiano is my family's way of saying Parmigiano Reggiano.