Loving Tom

So.  Thursday dinner was the meatballs with pappardelle.  First of all I confess that I did not make the pasta.  I had some dried pappardelle that was begging to be eaten.  And I've never made pasta.  This didn't seem like the time to try.  That was my only short cut in the meal, though.

I started the Sunday prior by making the meatballs - ground chuck, ground sirloin, pork and veal.  Oh wait, I also did not buy, as Tom does, cuts of meat and grind it myself - but ONLY because I lack the technology at home (yeah, right.).  Anyway, I think that's made up for by having on hand my own toasted brioche breadcrumbs.  I'm proud that I resisted my usual urges and didn't simply chuck the crusts that I had to remove from the loaves back when I made the leek bread pudding, instead lovingly whirring them in the food processor and nestling them into a baking sheet and gently turning them over the course of the next 20 minutes or so as they slowly turned a buttery, toasty brown in the oven.  They have come in handy several times already (recall the hot crab dip, and also as breading for parmesan breaded chicken cutlets) and I loved being able to use them here.  It's the little things, sometimes.  I think Tom would approve.

The recipe itself is fairly standard - a mixture of meats, sauteed onions and garlic, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, S&P.  The addition of a little lemon juice might be a twist (?), but then you see: 4 ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese.  What?!  Yes, these are stuffed meatballs!  After tenderly mixing the meats and other ingredients, being careful not to over mix of course so as to avoid ending up with tough little rubber balls, you loosely form rounds and press a 3/4 inch piece of mozzarella into the center and then finish shaping the ball.  Yay - a little surprise!  It was Tom's note that the meatballs could be frozen at this point and finished later that made the meal possible as a midweek option.

I also made the oven roasted tomato sauce that day - and it was phenomenal. I don't care what Jack says  ("There's something 'off' here... Oh, it's the fennel.")  Onions, leeks, fennel, garlic, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, San Marzano tomatoes, S&P, and another fun surprise: a sachet.  A little bundle of herbs (in this case bay leaf, thyme sprigs, peppercorns, and a whole garlic clove) tidily bound in cheesecloth and roasted along with the tomato mixture.  My only quibble with this recipe is the instruction to drain the tomatoes before chopping and roasting them.  I was very happy that I reserved that tomato sauce because I needed to add some of it back into the tomatoes as they roasted in order to allow the length of roasting time needed to achieve the rich, concentrated flavor I was after without ending up with a mess of dried out and charred tomato bits.

That night's accompaniment was parmesan roasted asparagus, compliments of Ina.  It's so simple that I'm not sure it it should really be given a dedicated page in a cookbook.  Toss asparagus with olive oil, S&P, and place on a baking sheet.  Roast for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven, remove and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan and return to oven for 5 more minutes.  Serve with lemon wedges.  That's it.  Yum.  And in case you don't work with asparagus very often, the best way to avoid getting a tough stringy stalk on your plate is to hold the fresh stalk at both ends and bend until it snaps - it will break at the point where the tough stringy part begins.  You can either discard the end pieces or find another use for them such as the start of a homemade vegetable stock that you might use for say, a cream of asparagus soup, or added to chicken stock to use in an asparagus mushroom risotto, perhaps.  

Having prepared so much of this meal in advance, and pairing it with such an easy side dish, made it possible for me to spend some time with a fun little garnish: Fried Oregano (see photo at top).  I've had fried sage before, but never oregano.  What fun to watch - and jump back squealing - as the stem is dropped into hot oil and immediately starts spattering like crazy while it does a little jig around the pan!  It only takes a couple of seconds to burn I learned, but if you can manage to approach the pan and get it out before that happens, and sprinkle a little kosher or sea salt on it, it's delicious!

This meal was another winner.  Hearty and satisfying.  Added bonuses: I got to try some new things, making it in advance made getting dinner on the table so quick and easy, and LEFTOVERS!  I ended up having this for dinner again on two other nights and it was just as good then - well, the pasta was a little tired but even that worked when twirled up with some of the sauce and a bit of meatball.  When I make these again I want to try stuffing them with that swanky newcomer Burrata....