Meatballs Even Martha Wont Turn Her Snout Up At -... |
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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 160 Minutes |
Ready In: 160 Minutes Servings: 12 |
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These subtle little swine sweets are made all throughout Greece. Here is an ancient recipe I “borrowed” from a Greek Island where I spent an inglorious weekend. The meatballs are very lightly seasoned, only when they wallow in the sauce do they become sublime. Ingredients:
sauce |
1 1/2 lbs. of plumb tomatoes |
3-4 large red bell peppers |
1 notoriously large yellow onion |
half a bunch of celery + about half a cup of leaf |
4 cups of thick tomato sauce |
2 cups of cranberry juice |
1 cup of mavrodaphne (a sweet greekish wine) |
2 big bay leaves |
1/3 cup of honey |
olive oil |
fresh garlic |
fresh thyme, rosemary and oregano |
meatballs |
2 lbs of lean ground pork |
1 1/2 lbs of fairly fatty ground pork |
1 large white onion |
8 cloves of garlic |
2 tbls. of cumin |
2 large eggs |
1 1/2 cups of coarse but fresh breadcrumbs |
3/4 cup more of mavrodaphne |
half a bunch of flat leaf parsley. |
Directions:
1. FOR THE SAUCE: Peel the tomatoes but keep them intact. Lightly rub them with olive oil, season them with salt and pepper and cook then in a demonically hot oven until they are more than well roasted and even start to brown. Grill the red peppers over an open flame of some kind until they are soft and collapse. When cool, peel and clean them.
2. Chop the onion into a small dice, the celery should be from the inner area of the bunch and chopped likewise. Finely mince the garlic and chop the herbs small – You can use which ever or all of them and exactly how much you may wish. Chop the celery leaves small.
3. In a large heavy saucepan sauté the onion first, in some olive oil until it turns pale gold and put in the celery. Cook until the onion turns a deep brown. Add the garlic – cook only 30 seconds – add the wine and cranberry juice. Reduce by 1/3.
4. Put the tomatoes, red peppers and the tomato sauce into a blender and liquefy. Add this to the sauce. Add the bay leaves and honey. Simmer gently until this is about halfway reduced. Season with salt and pepper.
5. FOR FUN: while the sauce sits simmering, walk around and act haughty and speak in a condescending manner to anyone you may have around, offering unsolicited advice in all things from teapots to politics…or better yet make these meatballs
6. FOR THE MEATBALLS: Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic as finely as possible short of a puree. Chop the parsley small. Simply mix them with the remaining ingredients and refrigerate for an hour.
7. Form them into either little balls or little egg-like shapes. Bake them at 375 until done. Let them cool and I daresay they might even be rinsed, in water to rid them of the invidious fatty ooze that tends to exude from meatballs in general.
8. FINISH by tossing the meatball in the sauce to coat them thoroughly. They can then be re-placed in the oven to set a glaze or topped with an appropriate cheese and broiled for a minute.
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