Frankies Meatballs Pasta Sauce Food

FRANK'S ITALIAN SAUCE (SPAGHETTI SAUCE)

Steps:

• For the meatballs: Combine all ingredients except the olive oil in a large bowl. Mix well. Form about 16 meatballs and place on a platter. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and fry meatballs over medium heat until browned. Repeat until all meatballs are browned. Place meatballs on new clean platter. Do not discard the oil.
• For the Gravy: In the skillet, heat the reserved oil, add the onion and garlic and saute for approximately 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Fill the empty tomato paste can full of water, add to the skillet, and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Remove from heat and set aside.
• In an 8-quart saucepan, add the ground tomatoes and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Fill the empty ground tomato can 3/4 full of water and add to the saucepan, along with the tomato paste mixture from the skillet and the reserved browned meatballs. Mix thoroughly but carefully with a wooden spoon so as to not break the meatballs. Add the salt, ground pepper, and parsley and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes, then cover and cook on low heat for 2 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes to prevent sticking and burning on bottom of pan. Serve over al dente pasta and sprinkle with some grated Pecorino Romano cheese, along with crusty Italian bread and a good bottle of red wine.

FRANKIES' MEATBALLS RECIPE | COOK THE BOOK

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 325°F. Put the fresh bread in a bowl, cover it with water, an let it soak for a minute or so. Pour off the water and wring out the bread, then crumble and tear it into tiny pieces.
• Combine the bread with all of the remaining ingredients except the tomato sauce in a medium mixing bowl, adding them in the order that they are listed. Add the dried bread crumbs last to adjust for wetness; the mixture should be moist wet, not sloppy wet.
• Shape the meat mixture into handball-sized meatballs and space them evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The meatballs will be firm but still juicy and gently yielding when they're cooked through. (At this point, you can cool the meatballs and hold them in the refrigerator for as long as a couple of days or freeze them for the future.)
• Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce in a sauté pan large enough to accommodate the meatballs comfortably.
• Dump the meatballs into the pan of sauce and nudge the heat up ever so slightly. Simmer the meatballs for half an hour or so (this isn't one of those cases where longer is better) so they can soak up some of the sauce. Keep them there until it's time to eat.
• Serve the meatballs 3 to a person in a healthy helping of red sauce, and hit everybody's portion-never the pan-with a fluffy mountain of grated cheese. Reserve the leftover tomato sauce (it will be extra-super-delicious) and use it anywhere tomato sauce is called for in this book.

ANNA AND FRANKIE'S MEATBALLS

Steps:

• BREAD CRUMBS: Unless you make your own bread crumbs, you won't be following Rao's kitchen tradition. Use the finest quality Italian bread you can find. Allow it to dry for at least two days. Then grate, using a handheld grater or a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Shake and push the bread crumbs through a medium strainer to get an even texture.
• MEATBALLS: Combine beef, veal, and pork in a large bowl. Add eggs, cheese, parsley, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Using your hands, blend ingredients together. Blend bread crumbs into meat mixture. Slowly add water, 1 cup at a time, until the mixture is quite moist. Shape the mixture into balls (approximately 2 1/2 to 3-inches in diameter).
• Heat oil in a large saute pan. When oil is very hot but not smoking, fry meatballs in batches. When bottom 1/2 of meatball is very brown and slightly crisp turn and cook top 1/2. Remove from heat and drain on paper towels.
• Lower cooked meatballs into simmering Marinara Sauce and cook for 15 minutes. Serve over pasta or on their own.

FRANKIE'S MEATBALLS (PASTA SAUCE)

Steps:

• We start preparing the meatballs combining all the ingredients (except the olive oil) in a large bowl. Add the eggs to the meat firstly.
• Mix thoroughly to evenly distribute the eggs with the meat.
• Add the Pecorino Romano cheese.
• Add the breadcrumbs.
• Add the chopped parsley and garlic.
• Add the salt.
• Finally, add the black pepper and mix thoroughly together in order to combine all the ingredients. At this stage I find easy to blend the ingredients by hand like working on a pasta dough.
• Then, start making your balls. Remember to compress the ball with your hands so they are very compact and will not crack. This is important because a ball with any cracks, or not compact enough, may break during the shallow frying stage.
• Now, heat the 60 ml olive oil (1/4 cup) in a large frying pan and fry the meatballs over medium heat until golden brown.
• If the meatballs stick to the bottom of the pan, you may use a non-stick frying pan or you can fry the meatballs two at a time and keep rolling them in the hot oil.
• Place the meatballs on a new clean plate or a tray.
• Do not discard the olive oil but filter it into a small bowl in order to remove the residue created when frying the meatballs.
• Now, add the filtered oil to the cleaned frying pan because now we are going to prepare the gravy.
• In the frying pan, heat the reserved oil, add the chopped onion and garlic and a sweat off for about 2 minutes.
• Then, add the tomato purèe...
• ...and cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
• Then, add 150 ml (5/8 cup) of hot water to the frying pan and...
• ...cook for one minute, stirring. The gravy is done, so remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
• Now, it's time to deal with the final stage of the recipe. In a large saucepan (also a casserole would do the job), add the chopped tomatoes and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
• Then, add the gravy (tomato purèe mixture) from the frying pan.
• Add the reserved browned meatballs.
• Cover with hot water. In my case, I used a very large saucepan so to cover the meatballs I needed 600 ml (1 pint - 2 1/2 cups) of water. A slightly smaller saucepan would probably require less water, I would say 400 ml (3/4 pint - 1 3/4 cups).
• Add the chopped parsley.
• Add a pinch of salt.
• Add a pinch of black pepper.
• Mix thoroughly, but carefully, with a wooden spoon, so as to not break the meatballs. Now, cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes, then...
• ...cover (leaving one side of the lid slightly open) and simmer for about 2 1/2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes to prevent sticking on bottom of the pan. Also, when doing that, turn the meatballs so the part that was in the top will get the next 20 minutes cooking facing the bottom and keep going like that until the end. After 1 1/2 hours simmering, check for seasoning; usually you need to add some salt.
• Now, serve the meatballs over al dente pasta (I used "paccheri" from Puglia region of Italy but large shells or rigatoni would do the job as well). Also, use the red sauce from the pan to coat the pasta. Finally, sprinkle with freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese (alternatively Parmesan cheese).
• Buon appetito and "many thanks" to Frankie for sharing his recipe and allowing me to publish it on the Italyum website.

MEATBALLS: THE SPUNTINO WAY

Steps:

• 1. Heat the oven to 325°F. Put the fresh bread in a bowl, cover it with water, and let it soak for a minute or so. Pour off the water and wring out the bread, then crumble and tear it into tiny pieces.
• 2. Combine the bread with all the remaining ingredients except the tomato sauce in a medium mixing bowl, adding them in the order they are listed. Add the dried bread crumbs last to adjust for wetness: the mixture should be moist wet, not sloppy wet.
• 3. Shape the meat mixture into handball-sized meatballs and space them evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The meatballs will be firm but still juicy and gently yielding when they're cooked through. (At this point, you can cool the meatballs and hold them in the refrigerator for as long as a couple of days or freeze them for the future.)
• 4. Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce in a sauté pan large enough to accommodate the meatballs comfortably.
• 5. Dump the meatballs into the pan of sauce and nudge the heat up ever so slightly. Simmer the meatballs for half an hour or so (this isn't one of those cases where longer is better) so they can soak up some sauce. Keep them there until it's time to eat.
• 6. Serve the meatballs 3 to a person in a healthy helping of the red sauce, and hit everybody's portion-never the pan-with a fluffy mountain of grated cheese. Reserve the leftover tomato sauce (it will be super-extra-delicious) and use it anywhere tomato sauce is called for in this book.

FRANKIE'S MEATBALLS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine beef and pork using your hands. Mince 1/2 clove garlic and add to meat mixture along with the eggs, cheese, and parsley; season with salt and pepper. Continue mixing with your hand until well combined. Add bread crumbs and mix well. Add water, 1 cup at a time, and continue mixing until mixture is quite moist.
• Shape mixture into 2 1/2-to-3-inch balls. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Smash remaining clove of garlic with the back of a knife and add to skillet. Cook until lightly browned and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon and discard. Working in batches, add meatballs to skillet. Cook until browned and cooked through, turning, about 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.
• Meanwhile, bring marinara sauce to a boil in a large nonreactive saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer and add meatball. Let meatballs cook in sauce about 20 minutes; serve immediately with pasta, if desired.