Tag Archives: meatball

Tursgiving 2014: The Meatballs Recipe

25 Nov

Yesterday I wrote about the amazing feast that is Tursgiving and promised our host’s famous meatballs recipe.

Here ya go!

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Tursgiving 2014: The Meatballs Recipe

Ingredients

    • Sauce:
  • 3 cans of Crushed tomatoes ( I like pastene )
  • 1 carrots finely chopped
  • 2 stalks of celery finely chopped
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic chopped
  • 4 bay leafs
  • 2 tbsp each of basil and parsley chopped
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • 4 tbsp of olive oil to start (separated)
    • Meatballs:
  • 1/2 pound each of beef, veal, pork and lamb
  • 1 cup parm cheese
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 3 green onions finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • 1 shallot finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp of finely chopped parsley
  • 2 tbsp of finely chopped basil
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • salt and pepper
  • Few dashes of worchestire sauce (optional)
  • Flour to dust meatballs

Instructions

    Sauce:
  1. In a large sauce pot... large enough for all your meatballs plus the sauce, add 2 tbsp oil over med/high heat and saute your onions, garlic carrot and celery until onions are translucent
  2. Add the rest of your sauce ingredients starting with the tomatoes and let simmer on a med low for 30 minutes
  3. Keep tasting to make sure its not missing anything
    4. Meatballs:
  4. While sauce cooks, add all meatball ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix well making sure everything is uniform
  5. Form into inch and a half sized balls (mixture shouldn't be loose... nor too dry... if too loose add a little more breadcrumbs)
  6. Then coat with a light dusting of flour
    7. Meatballs in sauce:
  7. In order to cook the meatballs, add them to the sauce gently until they are all in the pot (no frying!!!)... and cover.
  8. Then after 5 minutes gently mix with a spoon to rearrange the orientation of the meatballs.
  9. After another five minutes rearrange again and remove from heat and keep covered until they are room temperature.
    10. Tips from the chef:
  10. Make the sauce first so its cooking while the balls are being prepared
  11. I suggest preparing them the day before you want to cook them and then reheat... meatballs are always best reheated!!!
http://nycnomnom.com/2014/11/25/tursgiving-2014-meatballs-recipe/

Thanks, again, Mike!

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Mercato

9 Feb

We are fortunate at work to have a boss who is Italian and loves good food.  This ensures that we eat well during team lunches with him. 

He scheduled a team lunch around the corner at a place I always just passed right by without a notice, Mercato (on 39th Street just before 9th Ave, right near Port Authority).

It was decorated in a way that made you feel like you were dining in someone’s eclectic home.

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I especially appreciated the mirror frame made out of corks and the wine vault made out of old wine crates.

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They did a nice job of making it look inviting and simple.

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And the food was QUITE good.  We started with some shared apps, including meat balls…

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Olives…

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And a trio of bruschetta.

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We all got our own dishes including linguini with seafood.

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And seafood soup.

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And grilled skirt steak with roasted potatoes, broccoli rabe, and balsamic vinegar.

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I went with the branzino, which included 2 perfectly prepared fillets with raisins, spinach, celery, and garlic mashed potatoes (which I traded out for the roasted potatoes).

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It was very well cooked and I really liked the mild sweet contrast from the raisins in the sauce.  I expected a bit more from the potatoes, however.

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We put 3 small desserts on the table for everyone to split (I always find it funny how no one ever wants dessert and then when something comes out with multiple spoons… it magically disappears). 

They had a special dessert that day which was like a pound cake drizzled in chocolate.  It was pretty good.

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We also got the pistachio and almonds ice cream cake served with chocolate and honey.  This was my favorite.

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And we tried the ricotta cheesecake with vanilla beans.  It was good, but, per usual with cheesecake, I like mine better. 🙂

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Overall, this place serves high quality, classic Italian food at reasonable prices for the area (all pastas were $10-$16 and all the main courses were $14-$22).  I still give a slight edge to Il Punto and Carbone for Italian in the Penn Station/Port Authority/Broadway/Javitz Center black hole of a neighborhood I live in.

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

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