Nonna's Kitchen 10 - Spaghetti and Meatballs

The vast majority of Americans, when asked about Italian cuisine, would most likely mention Pizza and Spaghetti and Meatballs. Both are thought of as the quintessential Italian food and yet both have their origins primarily in American cuisine. My grandmother used to make amazing homemade pizzas, so that will make an appearance in a later article – this week, we’re talking about Spaghetti. Polpetti – patties or balls made of seasoned ground meat – are certainly Italian, but it was most likely an Italian American in New York in the late 1800s who first paired them with sauce and pasta. Meat based sauces like the one I featured in Nonna’s Kitchen 4 are primarily paired with short, textured pastas like Rigatoni or Ziti, and with long pastas like Tagliatelle – much wider than spindly little Spaghetti. Irrespective of their origins, however, nearly everyone adores Spaghetti and Meatballs, and there are probably as many recipes for it as there are people in Italy (around 60 million at last count.) Chances are that you make it at home already, whether you start from scratch or simply open a bag of frozen Costco meatballs and a jar of Marinara sauce.

I distinctly remember the first time I had dinner at a friend’s house when I was a kid; I was in second grade, so it was around 1975. My friend, who shall remain nameless, was excited because his mom was making Spaghetti, and it was his favorite food. I was excited, too, because Spaghetti and Meatballs was Sunday Dinner at Nonna’s food – my mom didn’t make them at home until I was much older. So here I am, envisioning Nonna’s thick, flavorful sauce and plump, spicy meatballs the size of large plums – man, was I disappointed. We were presented with plates of plain, limp Spaghetti covered with oil (so they wouldn’t stick together) topped with a ladle of what looked to me like chili. I realize now that it was probably something like Hunt’s canned tomato sauce with hamburger added. The Parmesan cheese was in the ubiquitous green cardboard can, which I thought at the time was very, very cool; our Parmesan had to be scooped out of the little bowl with a spoon and at age seven I hadn’t quite mastered the even sprinkle. This stuff you could shake over your pasta with ease! And, of course, it tasted like…salt and sour milk, if I remember correctly – I sorta blocked that part out.

I think of Spaghetti and Meatballs as the perfect meal for a casual dinner party – one where everyone stands around the kitchen drinking wine and snacking while the cook turns a few simple ingredients into magic in just about an hour. My Spaghetti sauce doesn’t have to cook all day like Nonno’s meat sauce – the flavors are perfectly developed in the time that it takes to make the meatballs and cook the pasta. It’s also quite recession-friendly; if you get somebody else to bring the wine, you can feed four people pasta, salad and bread for about ten bucks. Genius!

I feel compelled to get a few ground rules out of the way before we get to the recipe. First of all, the cheese: Just Say No to the green cardboard can – we’ve covered this before. You don’t have to spend $18 per pound on authentic Parmigiano Reggiano; you can get perfectly decent cheese from Wisconsin in your supermarket for less than half as much, and it actually tastes good! Second, al dente – literally “to the teeth” – describes the texture of perfectly cooked pasta, and it’s probably less done than you think. Cook your pasta on the short end of the cooking time recommended on the package, and you’ll be pretty close – when you bite a strand of Spaghetti in half, there should still be a white center showing, and it shouldn’t appear to be cooked all the way through. Obviously, this is personal preference, but perfect pasta should still have a slightly chewy “mouth feel”, if that makes any sense. Third, pasta should always come to the table with the sauce fully incorporated, as opposed to serving naked noodles and pouring sauce over the top. For most authentic Italian recipes, the pasta is often removed from the cooking water when still slightly less than al dente, tossed into the sauce pan and allowed to finish over low heat in the sauce. Finally, Italians use much less sauce than we Americans do. Mario Batali puts it quite well: he says that Italians consider the sauce to be the condimento – the condiment, like mustard on a hot dog. The important thing is the flavor of the pasta itself, and the sauce just “greases it up” and changes the flavor profile slightly. Whenever I serve pasta, I always sauce in the Italian manner and then pass extra sauce at the table. This way, you can please everyone!

The Recipe:
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Serves 4

Total prep and cooking time: approximately one hour

I’m warning you now that this recipe will be a little disjointed, because my version is different from Nonna’s and because there are a few variations that are easier to understand in the body of the recipe than if they’re listed at the end.

Ingredients:

1 lb. dried Spaghetti

For the Sauce:
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced (optional)
1 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
28 oz. canned tomatoes (see below)
1 tsp. dried oregano (optional)
1 tsp. dried basil (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. sugar (optional)

For the Meatballs:
1 lb. ground beef
½ lb. bulk Italian Sausage (optional – see below)
½ of a medium onion, finely minced or grated
½ Cup dried breadcrumbs (canned are fine)
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of ground allspice
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for frying
1 Cup flour for dredging

Okay, about the somewhat vague ingredient list, starting from the top – Bisnonna D’Orazi made Spaghetti sauce with so many red peppers that my mother says she couldn’t eat it; both Mom and Nonna don’t use any red pepper flakes, but I do. 1 tsp. is a pretty sane amount. I also use both the basil and the oregano, even though Mom and Nonna leave both out – their sauce is flavored only with salt and pepper. For the tomatoes, one 28 oz. can of whole Italian plum tomatoes – crushed by hand – is traditional. Frankly, I use whatever is in the cupboard – usually organic no salt added diced tomatoes, and occasionally I’ll use one 14 oz. can of those and one of diced tomatoes with tomato puree – this makes a slightly richer sauce. I DON’T use stewed tomatoes, anything with basil or oregano in it, and definitely not canned tomato sauce – it’s best to start with mostly unadulterated tomatoes. The sugar is there if your sauce is too acidic, just as it was with Nonno’s meat sauce. For the meatballs, both Mom and Nonna use just one pound of beef for four people. I love Italian sausage, and I love meatballs, so I’ll frequently mix in the additional bulk sausage and have half again as many meatballs – how could more meatballs possibly be a bad thing? I’ve also been known to make just the beef meatballs, but then cook a package of hot Italian sausages – sliced in half – and serve them with everything else.

Okay, on to the cooking, finally! Start out with the sauce: heat the olive oil over medium heat in a 12” high-sided sauté pan or dutch oven. Add the onions and cook until translucent – about five minutes – being careful not to let them brown. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes if you’re using them, stir to incorporate and cook for two minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice, the herbs if you’re using them, and a liberal grinding of pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover it with a lid.

For the meatballs: put the ground meat in a large bowl, add all the other ingredients and mix with your hands to thoroughly incorporate. Some people say that if you overwork the mixture your meatballs will be tough – if you’re concerned about this, mix the onion, breadcrumbs, egg and seasonings thoroughly, then add the meat to the mixture and incorporate. Trust me on the cinnamon/allspice/etc. – it’s very traditional in Bisnonna’s and Nonna’s recipes, and it gives the meatballs a good deal of complexity, even though it might sound a little weird. Form the meatballs with your hands to the desired size – somewhere between golf ball and billiard ball size. Mine are on the large end of that range, and I generally get 12 or 13 out of a pound of meat. When all of the meatballs are formed, heat about ¼” of olive oil in a 10” frying pan over medium high heat, dredge the meatballs in flour and fry for 4-6 minutes, turning to brown all sides. You’re looking for a good sear for color and flavor, not cooking the meatballs through at this point, and you may have to work in batches. As the meatballs are cooked, add them to the sauce, turning them so they’re covered in sauce. If you’re making Italian sausages, cut them in half and brown on all sides in the same pan, then add them to the sauce as well. At this point, Nonna scrapes the remaining cooking oil and the brown bits into the sauce, stirring to incorporate. While I love the flavor this imparts, I find it makes the sauce just a little too oily for my taste. Stir everything well, and then stir the sauce occasionally while the pasta cooks; be gentle so you don’t break up the meatballs.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. When it’s nearly done, remove the meatballs (and sausage) from the sauce and place them in a covered serving bowl. Check the seasoning of the sauce, adding salt and pepper to taste, then remove about 1 ½ cups of the sauce to a small serving bowl for passing at the table. Turn the drained pasta into the remaining sauce and toss to coat all of the strands. If you feel like there’s not enough sauce, add back in from the reserved portion until it meets your approval. Serve with good crusty bread and a green salad!

Mangia, mangia, fatte grande!