Polpette (Torpedo Shaped Meatballs)

Gourmet | January 2009

by Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez






yield: Serves 12 (antipasto) with remaining meat mixture for sunday ragù

active time: 40 min

total time: 40 min
This is a true Italian feast: Little meatballs served with the antipasti come just before big meatballs in the ragù. Miraglia Eriquez's grandmother... more ›
Ingredients

2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from an Italian or a French loaf)
1/3 cup whole milk
3/4 pound ground beef chuck
3/4 pound ground veal
3/4 pound ground pork (not lean)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 3/4 cups grated Pecorino Romano (3 1/2 ounces)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

print a shopping list for this recipe
Preparation

Stir together bread crumbs and milk in a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes.

Add meats, garlic, cheese, eggs, parsley, 1 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to bread crumb mixture and blend with your hands until combined (do not overmix). Form 1 1/2 cups meat mixture into small torpedo-shaped meatballs (1 level tablespoon each). Reserve remaining 4 cups meat mixture for ragù .

Heat oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then fry meatballs in 2 batches (do not crowd), turning occasionally, until browned well and cooked through, about 2 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels using a slotted spoon and reserve oil for frying meatballs for ragù.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/-em-Polpette-em-Torpedo-Shaped-Meatballs-351154#ixzz1jwWTGCpq

Hearty Beef and Carrot Soup

Hearty Beef and Carrot Soup

<< More Recipes
Ingredients

* 1 pound ground beef chuck
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 2 large cans (approximately 2 quarts each) vegetable juice
* 2 cans (approximately 10 ounces each)condensed cream of celery soup
* 1 pound carrots, peeled and sliced
* 1/2 cup barley (optional)







Cornbread Recipe:

* 1 cup self-rising cornmeal
* 1/2 cup self-rising flour
* 3/4 cup milk
* 2 eggs
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Brown ground beef in a skillet with chopped onions. Drain well.

2. Place all ingredients in a 6-quart stock pot.

3. Stir well and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes until carrots are tender.

Serve with cornbread.

Algerian Couscous: Vegetable or Beef

Marc learned to make this while on his mission to Belgium and France, and fine-tuned his recipe along the way. (He doesn't use actual recipes, so I forced him to write down his proportions one time when we were teaching a cooking class for Enrichment.)

1 large onion, chopped
3 T olive oil
3/4 t. turmeric
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
dash of cinnamon
3-4 whole cloves
1 1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. salt
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 small can tomato paste
3 medium zucchini
4 small yellow summer squash
4 large carrots
4 medium yellow potatoes
1 red or green bell pepper
1 can garbanzo beans, drained

Sauté onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent. Add all spices, including bouillon, and cook for a few more minutes, stirring as needed. Add tomato paste, stir and simmer 2 minutes.

Cut all vegetables into large chunks and add to the pot. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for at least an hour.

Add the garbanzo beans about 5 minutes before serving. Serve vegetable ragout over couscous.

Preparing couscous:

Put couscous in a bowl. Boil water with a bouillon cube. (use a 1 1/2:1 ratio of water to couscous) Put a pat of butter on dry couscous. Pour boiling water over the grain and wait about 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

My friend Gayle who lived in Morocco for several years makes her couscous differently: she first cuts up a chuck roast into about 6 sections, browns the meat, and then cooks it with the onion, spices, and 2 cans tomato sauce. After cooking the meat for about an hour, she adds the vegetables and cooks about an hour more. She also adds sweet potatoes to the vegetable mixture and steams cabbage on the side, and of course, serves it all over couscous.

Sunday ragu

I bought an organic top tound roast and wasn't sure how I'd fix it. Started looking around. Found this: won't this be great for a crowd, I thought. I'm saving it for just such an occasion. The reviews were quite complimentary, and this sounds like a real mama mia sort of thing, right up my alley.

So...I made this and brought it to the Super Bowl viewing at Karin and David's, and it was a good thing to bring, though unconventional for a football party. David and Tim and Mary love to cook, and I love to cook for people who love food. I didn't have pork, which I will def use next time. Beef ribs and chicken Italian sausage was fine.

yield: Makes 12

active time: 1 3/4

total time: 4 hr
This bottomless bowl of meat sauce is the stuff of dreams—the American Dream, in particular. In Italy, ragù would have been flavored w... more ›
subscribe to Gourmet


Ingredients
For tomato sauce:

* 5 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes in juice (preferably Italian)
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 1 large onion, finely chopped
* 5 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 California


For beef braciole:

* 4 garlic cloves, minced
* 1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
* 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano (2 ounces)
* 3 ounces thinly sliced pancetta, finely chopped
* 1 1/2 pounds beef top round, cut across the grain into 1/4-inch slices


For meatballs and other meats:

* Reserved meat mixture and frying oil from polpette (recipe posted separately)
* 1/2 cup olive oil for frying, divided
* 1 pound sweet Italian sausage links
* 1 pound hot Italian sausage links
* 1 1/2 pound boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch pieces
* 2 pounds country-style pork ribs


* Equipment: kitchen string


* Accompaniment: fresh egg fettuccine

Preparation

Make tomato sauce:
Pulse tomatoes with juice (1 can at a time) in a blender until almost smooth.

Heat oil in a wide 10-to 12-quarts heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then sauté onion until golden, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute.

Add tomato purée, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 40 to 45 minutes. Discard bay leaf.

Make braciole while sauce simmers:
Stir together garlic, parsley, cheese, and pancetta.

Pound top round to 1/8 inch thick between 2 sheets of plastic wrap with a rolling pin or meat pounder. Spoon parsley mixture evenly over beef cutlets (about 3 tablespoons each). Starting with a short side, roll up cutlets and tie at each end with string to make braciole.

Make meatballs:
Form reserved meatball mixture into balls (about 16), using a 1/4-cup measure.

Cook meats:
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Season braciole with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (total) and brown well in 2 batches, turning, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to a large shallow pan.

Add 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and brown sausage in 2 batches, turning, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to pan with braciole.

Pat pork shoulder dry and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and brown pork shoulder all over, about 5 minutes. Transfer to pan.

Pat pork ribs dry and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and brown ribs well in 2 batches, turning, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to pan.

Heat reserved oil from polpette in skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Fry meatballs in 2 batches (do not crowd), turning occasionally, until well browned, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels using a slotted spoon. (Discard oil.)

Finish ragù:
Return sauce to a simmer and carefully add all meats and juices. Simmer, partially covered, gently stirring occasionally (do not break up meatballs), until all meats are tender, about 2 1/4 hours.

Transfer meats with tongs to a large platter. Serve with fettuccine and remaining sauce.

Cooks' note: Tomato sauce with meats can be made 4 days ahead and chilled (covered once cool).

mexican casserole

we haven't had anything today but coffee and a handful of nuts. i went to a class at the y at 8:30, then to publix for company and feast next week, and prompted organized the pantry, the freezer, the fridge, began the huge task of straightening the mess that diana left in the basement, and changed the sheets for debi and waymon. dv was hungry. i used what i had to create something i've been wishing for since i bought a bag of corn tortillas. it's enough to feed eight people i think. leftovers will abound.


1 lb ground round
1 medium onion
generous dose of ancho chile powder
garlic salt,cumin,oregano

Brown beef and onions, add seasoning.

corn tortillas, torn in strips
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup sour cream, seasoned with something (i used Old Bay with garlic)
1 can of chili beans
cheese (I used sliced pepper jack)

I layered torn tortillas on top of a base of salsa, then added a layer of chopped spinach, topped that will about a cup of sour cream, seasoned, add more corn tortilla strips, top with beans and beef, end with cheese. bake 30-40 minutes.

see if you like it.

Talerine Beef Casserole

Made this last week when Diana was here and 'twas quite the hit with everybody. Nothing fancy, but far superior to the 1970's similar deal with Kraft mac n cheese, ground beef, and spaghetti sauce. I used frozen gumbo vegetables (corn, peppers, okra)and spinach fettucine, which worked fine.

Talerine Beef Casserole Recipe


Ingredients

* 12 ounce bag egg noodles
* 1 medium white onion, peeled and chopped
* 1 bell pepper, seeded, ribs removed, chopped fine
* 3 minced clove of garlic
* Grapeseed oil or olive oil for sautéing
* 1 1/2 pounds ground round beef
* Salt
* 4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
* 1 28-ounce can tomatoes
* 1 1/2 cups frozen corn (can use canned corn or creamed corn)
* 1 15-ounce can of black olives, strained and chopped
* 1 pound cheddar cheese, grated

Method

1 Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the egg noodles.

2 Heat 2 Tbsp of oil on medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Add the onions and bell pepper and sauté until softened. Add garlic and cook for a minute more. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with your fingers or a knife, if you are using whole canned tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to warm.

3 In a separate skillet, heat to medium-high. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to the pan and brown the meat, working in batches. Break up about half of the ground beef into the pan. Do not stir, but let sit and cook for a minute or two until brown. Sprinkle a little salt over the meat while cooking. Once brown on one side, stir the meat a little to get the other sides browned. Once the meat is thoroughly browned, use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the pan and put it in with the tomatoes, onions, and peppers. Brown the second batch of ground beef the same way.

4 Using the same pan that you had used for browning the beef, sauté the mushrooms in the remaining oil and beef drippings. Once browned, add the mushrooms to the beef and tomato mixture.

5 While the mushrooms are cooking, add the egg noodle pasta to the boiling water. Cook as directed, about 4-5 minutes. Strain when cooked, but still a little firm (al dente).

6 Add egg noodles, corn, chopped olives, and about two thirds of the cheese to the large pot of beef and tomato mixture. Gently mix in.

7 Transfer mixture to a large casserole dish, or to two casserole dishes if you don't have one that is large enough. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of casserole(s). Place in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes (can go as long as an hour).

Serves 8.

grillades cachiatore

I had some top round and didn't know what exactly to do. I love grillades. I added kale, didn't flour the steak and instead peppered and seasoned it with Everglades and smoked chili and it smells great so I am hopeful.

hunter-style grillades

Gourmet | October 2005 Cook the Cover Winner

HUNTER-STYLE GRILLADES

We are happy to announce that Emily Connor has won our October "Cook the Cover" contest with her delicious variation on Emeril Lagasse's grillades.

Emily Connor explains her variation:
Some of the most memorable recipes are those that combine the best of both worlds: In this case, Southern comfort food and classic Italian. The addition of crimini mushrooms, fresh thyme, and rosemary imparts the "hunter-style" (or cacciatore) while preserving the authenticity of the grillades. A few other changes — a simplified version of the spice rub, elimination of several dried herbs, and the use of olive oil and balsamic vinegar — streamline the recipe without sacrificing any of the flavor. As a twist to the dish, try serving with cauliflower purée. Not only does it complement the flavors and nicely soak up the braising liquid, but it's a great way to highlight the freshest of fall ingredients.

Servings: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds beef top-round steak (1/2-inch thick)
1 pound veal top-round steak (1/2-inch thick)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups chopped onion (1 large)
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (from 1 large)
1 cup chopped celery (about 2 ribs)
1 pound fresh crimini (or baby bella) mushrooms, quartered
1 1/2 cups (from a 28-ounce can) drained canned tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups beef broth (homemade or canned)
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Preparation
Cut beef and veal into 2-inch pieces. Combine flour, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl. Place each piece of meat between two sheets of plastic wrap and gently pound meat to 1/4-inch thickness with flat side of a meat pounder, turning meat over occasionally.

Lightly coat each piece of meat with seasoned flour. Heat olive oil in a wide 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Sauté meat (working in batches if necessary), stirring constantly and turning over, until evenly and lightly browned on both sides, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove meat from pan and set aside.

Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and mushrooms and cook, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from bottom and side of pot, until softened, 5 to 6 minutes. Add tomatoes and garlic and cook, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and side of pot, 3 minutes.

Return meat to pan. Add bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, salt, cayenne, black pepper, broth, and wine, then reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until meat is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Taste broth, and add balsamic vinegar to cut the richness of the braising liquid if desired. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

barbequed beef sandwiches!

BBQ Beef Sandwich Recipe

i made the bbq beef and it was a big hit - diana took some home, david ate it for lunches, we had it as a meal and i took some to mom and made her two meals from it. we may still have some left. e, this is easy and good!

BBQ Beef Sandwich

My mother grew up in a house where there was constant entertaining. My nana was somewhat of a social bee and even I remember how every night was a party night when as a child I came to visit during the summer. Mom and dad were reminiscing the other day about one of their favorite recipes of my grandmother's, her pulled beef. Mom remembers Nana once feeding 80 people this dish at her small adobe house in Tucson. It's terribly easy to make, you can easily double, triple, quadruple the recipe, making it perfect for serving large groups of people in an informal gathering. And it's absolutely delicious.
Print Options
BBQ Beef Sandwich Recipe
Print Options

* Print (no photos)
* Print (with photos)

Ingredients

* One 3-pound chuck roast, rinsed and dried
* 2 medium onions, chopped
* 1 Tbsp olive oil
* 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes (preferably plum tomatoes)
* 1 18-ounce bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 12 sandwich or hamburger buns

Method

1 In a large, heavy pot, heat olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, roughly chopping them in the pot. Add the barbecue sauce, increase heat to medium high and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chuck roast. Bring to a low simmer, cover and slow cook until meat is very tender, stirring occasionally, about 3 hours.

bbq-beef-sandwich-1.jpg bbq-beef-sandwich-2.jpg

2 Remove the meat from the pot. Use a fork and knife to separate the roast into small pieces. Set aside.

3 Increase the heat on the pot to medium/medium-high, uncover, and reduce the liquid until thick. Stir often to prevent burning.

4 Return the meat to the liquid in the pan. Warm both thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on buns. Makes approximately 12 sandwiches

flank steak w/o the grill

Quick and Easy Pan-Fried Flank Steak or Top Round

Flank steak is a lean, flavorful cut of meat that is probably best prepared marinated and cooked over a grill. But sometimes you just don't have time to marinate the meat or deal with the grill. My mother raised 6 kids (all born within 8 years) on my dad's teacher's salary. (Her favorite TV show is John & Kate plus 8, wonder why?) Which means she is the master of efficiency in the kitchen. This is her favorite method of preparing flank steak. The trick is to put little knife pokes in the meat, breaking up some of the long muscle fibers. When I asked about the juices running out of the meat, it's not really an issue as the meat is cooked rare, and whatever juices do come out get reduced in the pan and served over the meat.

You wouldn't want to cook flank steak this way on a grill, as you wouldn't be able to catch the juices. Also, grilled meat should be marinated first. (For that see our grilled, marinated flank steak recipe.)

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 pound flank steak or top round steak
* Dry mustard
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Softened butter
* Salt

1 Remove the steak from the refrigerator a half hour before cooking. Cut away any tough connective tissue on the surface of the steak. Using the tip of a sharp knife, poke small cuts into the meat, almost all the way through. The cuts should be at an angle, in the direction of the grain of the meat as the knife tip is going in. The cuts should be about an inch apart from each other. Turn the steak over and repeat the cuts on the other side. Make sure that the cuts you are making on this side are parallel with the cuts you made on the other side, otherwise you may cut across an existing cut, and end up poking a hole through the meat.

2 Sprinkle one side of the steak with dry mustard. (You can use regular mustard if you don't have any dry mustard.) Sprinkle the steak with freshly ground pepper. Rub a tablespoon of butter all over the side of the steak. Turn the steak over and repeat with the dry mustard, pepper, and butter.

3 Heat a large cast iron frying pan on high heat. Sprinkle both side of the steak with salt (unless you have used salted butter, then you can skip the salt.) Place steak in hot pan. Let sear for 2 to 3 minutes until well browned. Use tongs to lift up to see if nicely browned. If so, flip to the other side and let sear for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let the steak continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes in the residual heat of the pan (assuming you are using cast iron, if not, lower the heat to low).

4 Use your fingertips to check for doneness or insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the steak - 120°F for very rare, 125°F for rare, or 130°F for medium rare. Flank steak should be served rare or medium rare, otherwise it may be too dry. Remove the steak from the pan to a cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes, covered with aluminum foil.

5 Cut the meat in very thin slices, at an angle, against the grain of the meat. (This way you break through the tough long muscle fibers.) Any juices that come out of the meat while cutting or resting, return to the pan. Return the pan to a burner on high heat and deglaze the pan with a little water, scraping up any browned bits. Once the water has mostly boiled down, add a little butter to the pan for a nice sauce. Arrange the cut meat on a serving plate and pour the deglazed pan juices over the meat.

Serves 4 to 6.

i'm grilling this today with some london broil

todd at the bistro has a great chicken under a brick...so i tried this and it was fab! making it with london broil.

(the london broil has been marinating in something from a vicki sebastiani cookbook i bought in buckhead at a wine store: 1/2 cup of rosemary leaves, 1/3 cup of thyme leaves, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 T hot sweet mustard, 1/2 cup of red wine and balsamic vinegars (in total), 2 cloves of garlic, blended together till creamy)

This is a traditional Tuscan method—bricks weigh down the butterflied chicken, resulting in even, quick cooking and crispy skin (you'll need two bricks for this recipe; wrap them in foil). If you don't have bricks, a cast-iron skillet will do the trick. Ask your butcher to butterfly the chicken for you.


1 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano
3 teaspoons salt, divided
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 whole chicken (about 33/4 pounds), neck and giblets removed, butterflied
1 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 oranges
2 foil-wrapped bricks or 1 cast-iron skillet

penne bolognese

Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce

The main trick to this recipe? Sufficiently browning the meat. Which means using a cast iron frying pan on high heat, letting the ground beef cook in its own fat, and not stirring it, so that the meat has a chance to brown well.

* 1/2 pound penne pasta (use rice pasta for gluten-free version)
* Salt
* 2 Tbsp olive oil
* 2 cups chopped onion (about 1 large onion)
* 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (blend of dried basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and savory)
* Dash red pepper flakes
* 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 pound (16% fat) ground beef
* 3 fresh basil leaves, chopped
* 2 1/2 cups canned chunky tomato sauce (almost 1 28-ounce can, Muir Glen brand if you can get it)
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 Heat to boiling a large pot with 4 quarts of water in it. Once the water is boiling, salt it with 1 Tbsp of salt. Once the water returns to a boil add the pasta to the pot. Leave uncovered, let cook on high heat with a vigorous boil. Put the timer on for 8-10 minutes, or whatever your pasta package says is appropriate for al dente (cooked but still a little firm). Drain.

2 Once you've started to heat the water, start working on the sauce. Heat olive oil in a very large skillet on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened. Add the garlic, fresh thyme, season with salt and pepper. Cook for an additional minute, until the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside.

3 Heat a large cast iron pan on high heat. Salt the bottom of the pan generously. Once the pan is hot, break up small chunks of ground beef and add them to the pan, without stirring. (You may need to work in batches; do not crowd the pan.) You want the meat to get well browned. If the pan is too hot and the meat is burning, not browning, take the pan off the heat for a little, and reduce the heat to medium high. On our coil electric stove, it takes the high heat setting for the meat to brown sufficiently, but your stove may be different. Once the meat is browned on one side (a couple of minutes), use a metal spatula to flip the meat over to brown on the other side. At this point, assuming you are using a cast iron pan, you can remove the pan from the heat. The residual heat in the pan will finish cooking the meat.

4 Use a slotted spoon to lift the meat from the cast iron pan and add it to the pan with the seasoned onions. Add tomato sauce. Use the edge of your metal spatula to break up the bigger chunks of meat into smaller pieces. Add basil. Add a teaspoon of sugar. Bring to a simmer on low heat, let cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

5 Once the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, adjust seasonings. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a little more sugar if the sauce is too acidic. Add more tomato sauce if the sauce is a little dry. Stir in the cooked penne pasta. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.