Cooking the Books: Dom's Mom's Meatballs

It's day two of a four day weekend for me, and I've a clean kitchen and a non-over-stuffed fridge. This means...

Time to cook.

I wanted to chop, and I wanted to mix, and I wanted an excuse to eat pasta. So, I hopped on over to the grocer's and bought all the fixings for Dom's Mom's Meatballs, the quintessential meatballs from Dom DeLuise (and his mother).

Of course, there are in-the-moment variations: I upped the amount of parsley, because I couldn't bear the thought of using just a bit of a bunch, knowing I'd not use the rest of it before it went bad. I bought pre-seasoned breadcrumbs, feeling in part like I was a poseur, but also admitting that, damn it, really good seasoned Italian breadcrumbs are, in fact, really good. I grated my cheese (parmesan -- Mr. DeLuise doesn't specify, but, c'mon, ya know his mom's using parmigiano) because the stuff in a shaker jar just isn't good enough for a loving batch of meatballs. I didn't measure the cheese -- it was closer to 4 oz by weight than by volume. I used 1.5 pounds of ground beef, and 1 pound ground pork, mostly because I couldn't buy a smaller portion of pork, and so I thought my option was "double the recipe" or "just switch proportions." There's only two of us -- well, three if you count Puck the Corgi -- and we've a small little freezer, so making 40 massive meatballs seemed foolish at best.

The meat mixture is resting right now. Didn't take any photos during the assembly & mixing process, because my hands were busy, and dirty. Perhaps I'll ask Nick the Chefly Husband to take some pictures as the shaping process happens. If so, I'll post 'em here. If not, well... They're meatballs. I assume they'll be brown and lovely, and eventually covered in red sauce and served with penne.

And a lovely glass of almost-undoubtably-red wine.

Peaches in Red Wine

This week has made me fall in love with Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! all over again. I could sit down and read it, cover to cover, lapping up the celebrity stories along with the sauces, and, especially, losing myself in Dom DeLuise's family.

It seems all sorts of appropriate, then, to end the week not with one of the complex cakes or fried dessert concoctions (though Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! has 'em, and they're fabulous), but with something a little more simple, a little more focused on the stories.

Peaches in Red Wine

Every kid feels there are certain things their parents do which embarrass them. Especially kids who are trying to be American, not Italian -- like I was when I was growing up. When my father would eat big, ripe peaches with his homemade wine for dessert, it would make me so embarrassed! I thought this was definitely not a class act -- even though I secretly loved the taste too. So you can imagine my surprise when, some years ago at a verrrrry fancy Italian restaurant, they served ... you guessed it! Ripe peaches in red wine for dessert. Writing this book has helped me examine some of my attitudes toward my past. I wish that my father were alive today, because nothing would please me more than to take him to a fancy restaurant for Peaches in Red Wine.

really ripe freestone peaches, sliced
light red wine
candlelight

Put the peaches in wineglasses, pour the wine over them, and let them sit for a while ... just long enough for a father and son to talk awhile and get to know each other better. Try it out on your dad, I'm sure he'll like it.

:sniffle:

Aw!

I'm sure it works with mothers and sons, daughters and mothers, sons and mothers, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, old neighbor ladies who don't get many visitors... try it out with anyone you need to get to know a little better.

...which makes me think, oh, yes, that this would be perfect summer-picnic-at-an-outdoor-concert sort of take-along dessert, too.

Writing this blog is helping me examine my attitudes about my own past and culture. Maybe I'll get a little less smug about cream of whatever casseroles, and be less hesitant to use a pudding mix in ... something non-pudding. Time will tell.

I miss my dad. I should give him a call.

Rabbit con Polenta

The second of today's two-fer from Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better!: something to go with the polenta:

Rabbit con Polenta

This dish is extremely popular in Venice and Naples, and will be at your home, too!

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 rabbit, cut into pieces
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 medium onion, cut into small pieces
6-8 mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried
2 whole cloves
1 cup Chianti or other dry red wine
1 cup chicken broth
pepper
polenta (see Basic Polenta, page 143)

Heat butter and oil in large heavy skillet. Add rabbit, turning frequently, until brown on both sides. Add celery, carrot, onion, mushrooms, garlic, rosemary, cloves, wine, and broth. Season with pepper. COver and simmer over low heat until rabbit is very tender and meat pulls easily from bone, about 1 hour.

Serve on polenta.

Serves 4-6.

Note: Polenta is also very kind to chicken and veal.

Cookbooks today probably wouldn't use the word "kind" in the same sentence as "veal." The times, they are different.

If you can't stand the thought of eating Thumper, you can replace the rabbit with chicken. You'll miss out, though. I'm very fond of rabbit dishes, all the while also being fond of the animals. Comes from my years in 4H, I suppose... We raised rabbits for several years. Long enough, actually, that all the stray rabbits in the neighborhood ended up hopping their ways into our back yard. I'd never thought of stray rabbits before, but they can and do get out of their enclosures by accident, or through neglect, and they have to hippety hop somewhere. We had a passel of 'em, and took in the stray as long as there was room for them. At one point, that even meant boarding up a shower stall that was in the back yard, waiting to be installed. Odd accommodations, but worked in a pinch.

If I were cooking this, I'd want more mushrooms, as 1-2 mushrooms per serving seems awfully stingy to me, and some nice mushrooms, simmered in wine and broth, sound very tasty.

Basic Polenta

Rehearsal ran until 10 last night, so I didn't get a post in; you get two today from Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! to make up for it. Not just two; two that go together!

Basic Polenta

Polenta is very popular in Italy, and leftovers, which have a very firm consistency, can be fried like grits. Very few people know this, but polenta can be used to repair broken stucco and any cracks in your home! The nice part is, when you're hungry, all you've got to do is lick the walls. Seriously, though, the real trick here is to keep stirring it slowly...and keep believing.

6 cups water
2 cups polenta, or coarse-grained cornmeal

Bring water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Reduce heat so water is just simmering and gradually add the polenta in a steady stream. Stir constantly.

Continue to stir until polenta is thickened. Polenta should come away from the sides of the pan and be able to support a spoon. Pour thickened polenta onto a wooden board and let stand for a few minutes before turning out onto a serving platter.

Polenta can be served in a variety of ways: as a bed for chicken, sausages, or rabbit stew. As a first course, it can be topped with grated cheese. Polenta is delicious served with marinara sauce too... just make indentations and fill the wells with your favorite spaghetti sauce. Have fun serving your polenta by cutting it the "old-fashioned" way: hold a string tautly and slice right through.

Serves 5-6.

Aaaah, Mr. DeLuise. Now is when we remember that you're a schlocky comedian. Note to blog readers: don't use polenta to repair your home. Also, lentil soup is not improved by adding in a piece of ceiling or sky.

It may seem strange that this recipe doesn't include any fat. Where is the butter? Where is the cheese? Regardless, this is a purist approach, and just like cooking up a pot of rice, you should know how to get the starch perfect perfectly plain before you do improvisational riffs on the theme.

Truth be told, I usually buy my polenta pre-cooked, in tubes, and then fry it up in rounds, or smoosh it into a casserole and top off with Tex-Mex ingredients. I don't know that I've ever gone a polenta route with Italian food. I'm willing to give it a try, though -- starch + tomatoes + cheese = perfection, in my book.

Soft squoodgy warm starch sounds very soothing to me.

Mamma's (and Michael's) Meat Sauce

If you see comments on Take One Cookbook... from Kelly Redwine, you should know, you're reading my big sister. As a little sister, I feel it's my duty to both support and horribly tease my big sister whenever possible, and Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! has given me a fabulous chance. So, Kelly, here's your boyfriend's meat sauce recipe.

Mamma's (and Michael's) Meat Sauce

Once when my mother came to visit us, she taught my son Michael (who was nine years old at the time) to make this sauce. Michael (who is seventeen now) has been making it ever since. He takes requests for "Michael's Meat Sauce" without batting an eye.

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 28-oz. cans ready-cut, peeled tomatoes
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pound lean ground beef
1 teaspoon thyme
10 fresh mushrooms, diced

In a saucepan, heat oil and lightly brown onion, carrot, and garlic. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, pepper, and sugar. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

While sauce is simmering, brown ground beef in skillet over medium-high heat, drain off fat. Add meat and thyme to tomato mixture. Cover and simmer 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms and cook another 10 minutes.

Great with 1 pound of pasta, cooked al dente.

Serves 4-6.

I know you loooooooove him, Kelly, so here's a photo of your boyfriend. He's so dreamy!

Requisite teasing: over.

This meat sauce sounds like my family's standard spaghetti sauce -- well, if you sidestep around the whole "we used a Schilling seasoning packet" part -- and so sounds cozy as all get-out to me. I also like that it says how much pasta this recipe will sauce adequately. Anyone who gets 6 servings out of a pound of pasta is clearly no friend of mine, however. 4? Sure. 6? NO.

If for any reason you have leftovers, this should keep well.

As you'd expect, there are a lot of sauce recipes in Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! -- it's a predominantly Italian cookbook, after all. If anyone's interested, I'll post Mamma's Sunday Sauce, too... it's what Dom DeLuise grew up eating, and his default sauce.

Hearty Mushroom Barley Soup

Part of the fun of Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! is the unabashed starf***ery; Dom DeLuise seemed to know just about everyone in showbiz, and is as downright chatty about the stars as he is his family in this book.

Julann's Fat-Free, Hearty Mushroom Barley Soup

I was the very first guest on the Merv Griffin television show back in 1961. It was at that time that I met Merv's wife, Julann Griffin. We have been good friends ever since. Julann is a very unique woman. She makes her own soap, she has kept bees, she has even been known to make beer in a bathtub! She was the president of the First Women's Bank of California, she plays a mean game of tennis, and she even invented the game "Jeopardy" that Merv produces for television. Julann is a very funny lady, and I have laughed till I cried with her. I've also just cried. She is a fabulous friend, a great cook, and is very concerned with eating healthfully. I have had some of Julann's wonderful, fat-free, hearty soups, and I know you'll love this one as much as I do. (If you'd like this soup a little less "hearty," add more chicken broth and/or tomato juice to your taste.)

1 1/2 cups barley
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups chicken stock
2 cups tomato juice
4 fresh sweet basil leaves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon oregano
10-15 mushrooms, thinly sliced
pepper to taste
lowfat yogurt

In a soup pot combine barley, tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, chicken stock, tomato juice, and herbs. Stir. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, and cover, but not completely -- leave lid slightly askew. Stir occasionally. Let soup simmer 1 hour, then stir in the mushrooms. Add pepper and let simmer 1 more hour. Ladle into hot soup bowls and top each with a spoonful of yogurt.

Serves 8-10.

I cringe to think of adding garlic and onions to a soup without a nice sauté first, but this soup is simmering for a long time, so the sharpness has plenty of a chance to mellow.

And, isn't there just something perfectly autumnal about a thick soup with barley and mushrooms?

DeLuise's gushing description of his friend might make you think she and Merv were still married at press time; they were not, having divorced in 1973. Their son is in entertainment, too -- best credit: Prison Guard, Spaceballs. And, though creating Jeopardy! is pretty cool, how much cooler is it that she also composed the theme song?

This post might be a little scattered; Chefly Husband and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary today, and I'm a bit giddy and unfocused.

Calling All Popeyes: Two Spinach Recipes

A dear reader asked for a spinach recipe from Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! -- I couldn't decide between two such recipes, so will post both.

Mamma's Spinach and Potatoes in Broth

I don't know why it took me a long time to appreciate this terrific dish of my mother's. Spinach never had it so good!

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup water
4 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered, and parboiled
2 pounds spinach, well washed

Place oil in a large saucepan and gently brown garlic. To the pot add chicken broth, water, and the potatoes. Add spinach. Cover and cook 15 minutes. You'll notice spinach has collaped to almost nothing.

This is a soupy mixture but the garlic, potatoes, and spinach mingle together and you won't want to leave a drop of this behind. Just have plenty of hot Italian bread around so you can get it all.

Serves 4.

This sounds a lot like the caldo I devoured all along the pilgrim trail to Santiago last August. Mmmm, potatoes and greens and broth! Simple, hearty, tasty. I also like that it's 4 potatoes for 4 people; our family's potato soup is measured that way - one potato per person. I'm sure if you wanted to scale up this recipe for more people, it'd be a spud a body.

But, let's say you're not in the mood for a soup, brothy, soppy wonder. (It could happen.) What else can Dom DeLuise's mamma suggest to use up that spinach?

Mamma's Spinach Rolls

When anybody is working with flour and dough, it's always fascinating to children. I remember when I was a little kid, with my nose just above the counter, I used to love to watch my mother lovingly roll out the dough. Then Mamma would let me climb on a chair so I could roll out y own. I remember how proud and excited I was when my spinach roll came out of the oven. I recently taught my seventeen-year-old son, Michael, how to make this, and I guess he wasn't too old to get into this terrific dish because he ate the whole thing for dinner!

Pizza Dough (page 207)
1 pound fresh spinach, washed, drained, and coarsely chopped
1 small onion, chopped
grated cheese
pinch of red pepper
olive oil
1 egg, beaten

Roll out pizza dough into a thin rectangle and place on greased cookie sheet. Spread chopped spinach evenly over dough. Sprinkle with chopped onion, cheese and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over, then gently roll dough jellyroll fashion, making sure the seam is on the bottom. Shape into a crescent.

Using a fork, poke 8-10 holes in the dough so it can "breathe," and brush roll with beaten egg. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Slice and serve hot or cold as an appetizer, or with a salad, for a delicious, healthful light meal.

Serves 4-6.

Variation: Substitute 2 cups chopped broccoli and 1 cup of shredded mozzarella for spinach.

...oh, yes. It's not noodles, but... oh, YES. Bread, cheese, spinach? What's not to love?

I never quite got the whole "kids hate spinach" trope. I've loved spinach since I was a baby. I love it fresh. I love it cooked. I love it after it's been frozen. I even love it after it's been canned. Spinach, spinach, spinach! Also, "bacon, bacon, bacon!" Even better, "spinach and bacon, spinach and bacon, spinach and bacon!" In fact, I wouldn't turn up my nose at adding crumbled bacon into this spinach roll (though it de-vegetarianizes the dish).

If anyone needs a pizza dough recipe, I can post the one from Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! -- or you can use frozen (and defrosted) pizza dough from the market. Better than that, though, at just one step down from making your own -- see if the local pizza place will sell you some fresh dough.

Like DeLuise, I have fond memories of dough-making endeavors with my family. My dad would let me help knead bread and pizza dough, by making monster faces and then pounding them away. He'd wash the kitchen floor, and then I'd use the floor as my work surface, covered in flour. Good times.

Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better, by Dom DeLuise; Dom's Mom's Meatballs

I asked Chefly Husband to grab me down a cookbook for this week. It surprises me not at all that he selected
Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! by Dom DeLuise. Published in 1988, it reads like a good Italian granny's recipe box; says Chefly Husband, "we've no Italian blood in our family, and we needed some good Italian." And, boy, did they get it.

Dom's Mom's Meatballs

For as long as I can remember, my mother has never worn makeup. Also, she simply combs her hair straight back in a bun. Can you believe that when I was a child, I thought that bun was filled with meatballs? Good old Mom.

2 pounds ground chuck
1/2 pound ground pork
2 cups Italian-flavored bread crumbs
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped very fine
1 onion, minced
1/2 cup pignoli (pine nuts) (optional)

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Let stand 1/2 hour. Shape into medium-size meatballs. Fry gently in olive oil until lightly browned, or place on foil on a cookie sheet and bake for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees. Gently place in your own hot spaghetti sauce and cook on medium-low heat for 1 hour.

P.S. What I like to do is quadruple the recipe (you'll have about 100 meatballs) and then place the meatballs on large Teflon baking pans. After they're baked and cooled, I put twenty at a time in large Ziploc bags and pop them in the freezer. Then they're ready, willing, and able anytime!

Serves 10, 2 meatballs per person.

Nick's family follows Mr. DeLuise's advice and quadruples the recipe. Evidently, they'll load up the Nesco (ah, regionalisms! My family, if doing the exact same thing, would load up the Crock Pot.) with meatballs and sauce, and put out toothpicks -- instant party food!

The pine nuts really add a nice touch, and they're not as hard to find as they used to be. If you're wondering how big the meatballs should be, the recipe has a picture of the author, holding an ice cream scoop to portion out his meat balls. They're not small, folks.

I didn't grow up eating meatballs -- our meat sauces had ground beef crumbled throughout, not distinct chunks of anything -- but the first time Nick made me these meatballs? I became a meatball fan.

This'll be a fun week, folks, with lots of good autumnal eats.