LA Times via Wednesday Chef

I got this recipe from the Wednesday Chef who got it from the LA Times and I’ve been cooking it since at least 2006… that’s what my notes say. So it’s got to be a favorite.

Here are some of my notes:

Cooked 6.06… I made the simple tomato sauce she suggested using my frozen San Marzano sauce. Made CI Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes to go with. That’s good-eatin’ comfort food… couldn’t put down my fork.
Cooked 4.08 – Just keeps on bein’ good. – see below
Cooked 3.11 — Dang all, these are good… why don’t I do them more often? Mixed about 1/4 ground beef and 3/4 sausage in the Kitchen Aid. The recipe doesn’t say to brown the balls, but I did. Used my chunky tomato sauce.

Why don’t I do them more often? As you readers of eats… know, I’m always up for trying new stuff, so that’s one reason. But then, I have several other good meatball recipes and really, how often does a meatball craving come around on the big wheel?
I’ve written about meatballs only twice on eats: Polly Dutton Meatballs in ‘aught six and Pappardelle with a ragu of tiny meatballs in 2008; so it’s been a while.

Generally I vary the ingredients for these Sardinian Meatballs each time, depending on whim or what I have on hand. Joyce Goldstein calls for all pork, but for this occasion, I used 3 Italian sausages from Golden Gate Meat — about 5/8 pound — and the balance ground beef. I’ve incorporated beef before, but never more than a quarter of a pound. They seemed a little heavier than usual this time. Just go with Joyce… pork rules, let it rule.

So, just assemble the ingredients and mix ‘em together. Its easy to mix by hand, but since I got my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, that is my preferred method; easy, clean and more thorough mixing without overmixing.

The recipe suggests that they be served over spaghetti or mashed potatoes. I have gone both ways, but today I was in the mood for spaghetti.

A word about spaghetti. For long pasta, I like thin spaghetti or store-bought fresh fettuccine or especially my homemade egg noodles. I find “regular spaghetti” too fat and heavy — just me. At my local Real Food market, they had shelves of DeCecco dried pasta, but no thin spaghetti. I could have walked two blocks to Cheese Plus, but instead bought a box of Bella Italia Capellini. That was fine (in more ways than one), but I still prefer thin spaghetti.

For sauce, I got out a container of roasted cherokee purple tomato sauce that I made and froze last fall. That stuff is serious good; rich and dark and sweet and dense and perfect. (I thought I had featured this sauce on eats, but no. Good subject for the next entry.)

The meatballs with their sauce were served over capellini with a side dish of braised carrots, a hunk of pecorino to grate and a very nice Simi Cabernet Sauvignon.

Sardinian Meatballs
Serves 4 to 6

1 pound ground pork
1/4 cup dried or 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs [I almost always make my own breadcrumbs. This time from an Acme Herb Slab about three days old.]
6 tablespoons grated pecorino cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Give these ingredients an initial brief mix, then add

2 eggs [I prefer to lightly beat the eggs before adding.]

For the sauce:
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 3/4 cups canned tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup water
I always use my own tomato sauce, made with fresh tomatoes.

1. In a bowl, combine the pork, bread crumbs, eggs, cheese, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and mixed together until smooth. Form the mixture into balls about 1 inch in diameter.

In a saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and water, mix well, and then add the meatballs.
Here, I depart from the recipe. I brown the meatballs lightly in olive oil, then pour my sauce over them to continue cooking.

4. Bring the sauce to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, until the meatballs are cooked through and tender, about 45 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with mashed potatoes or spaghetti.

meatballs brown

meatballs cook in tomato sauce

Yum. Good stuff.

…and reviews of two bistro cookbooks, Bouchon by Thomas Keller and Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain

I wrote this in February 2009 and somehow it slid to the bottom of the drawer. I’ll blame it on getting busy preparing my income tax. In any case, its just as relevant today. Roast chicken does not go out of style, and Bouchon and Les Halles Cookbook are still in print, so you can rush right out and get your own copy (don’t get it from Amazon, they don’t pay California sales tax and owe the state about a bazillion dollars).

I had never roasted a plain, whole chicken before, always left that to Carol. I loved eating roast chicken, either home made by Carol or brought home from a rotisserie shop or the roli roti truck at the Farmers Market. I don’t know, a roast chicken always seemed mysterious to me.

In his book House:A Memior, Michael Ruhlman, co-author of Bouchon, described inaugurating the new kitchen of his new house with a simple roast chicken:

“I turned on the oven. I took a cast iron pan off its hook. I set a fresh chicken in it and salted the bird well.

“There was never a doubt what the first meal n the new kitchen would be. Roast chicken, baked potatoes, green beans with lemon and butter. Roast chicken is to me the iconic meal of the home. Many pleasures attended its cooking; in a way it seasoned the kitchen, the way you’d season a pan. Its smell filled the room, the house. I like to baste a chicken, to hear the crackling juices from the cavity spill into the fat, to spoon hot, clear fat over the darkening skin. A perfectly roasted bird is a beautiful sight.”

I was envious of his ability to simply and effortlessly roast a chicken. I read House in 2004. It took me until now to roast a chicken myself.

Roast Chicken Bouchon
My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken
Mon Poulet Roti, Thomas Keller

I was looking through Bouchon, one of my favorite books about cooking. I think of a cookbook as a book of recipes. Bouchon is so much more than that, it’s about food and cooking, with recipes used as illustration. In any case, I was thinking of writing a review of Bouchon. As I leafed through, I came across a two-page spread entitled My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken, Mon Poulet Roti. Below the title was Thomas Keller’s narrative description of how he roasts a chicken at home. On the facing page was a gorgeous picture of a roast chicken. It looked so good, I just had to give it a try.

Here’s the picture from the book that enticed me to make THAT chicken.

It looked pretty simple: Heat the oven to 450°F. Rinse and thoroughly dry the chicken. Truss it with butcher’s twine. Rain salt and pepper over the bird.

“Place the chicken in a roasting pan and, when the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. I leave it alone – I don’t baste it, I don’t add butter; you can if you wish, but I feel that creates steam, which I don’t want. Roast it until it’s done, 50 to 60 minutes.”

I had questions. Roast on a rack? Brine the bird? I referred to page 192 to learn how to truss the bird and found the restaurant recipe, answering my questions. Rack: no. Brine: he brines in the restaurant, but not when he does it for enjoyment at home.

I can do this. I got out my chicken and my cast iron skillet. Continue reading →