Thursday, March 27, 2008
Recipe: Spaghetti and Meatballs
Posted by Greg in meatballs, Recipe, spaghetti, video
While real Italians would never serve spaghetti and meatballs on the same plate, we must sheath our Mediterranean food snobbery in recognition of the fact that it’s a damn tasty dish, no matter how it’s served. It’s a simple dish that we hope becomes part of your repertoire, but like most simple dishes, it is founded on attention to detail. First, find yourself quality tomatoes (you can’t go wrong with anything that says Product of Italy and/or San Marzano on the label). Second, make sure you cook your pasta — and this is imperative — perfectly. This means monitoring your spaghetti as it cooks. Once you hit the 4 minute mark, begin tasting every fifteen seconds. The difference between al dente, blah, and mush is a matter of seconds (and never rinse your pasta — you’ll wash away all that glorious starch).
On the meatball side of things, the ingredients can vary according to taste and indeed, we encourage you to experiment. We like lamb for its intensity, even in small doses, but you could just as easily use pork, veal of beef. The only bit of advice here is to use equal parts bread and meat. Keep in mind, meatballs, or polpetti, were created as a way to stretch leftover ingredients. While our wallets and meatballs may be fatter here in America, nobody likes a dense meat sphere on their plate. Balancing it with bread ensures a light, airy result.
Recipe and follow-along-at-home video after the jump.