Cooking
Not all my efforts in the kitchen this weekend were completely in vain. I made these meatballs following a recipe in Clarissa Hyman’s Cucina Siciliana, and I thought they were delicious.
It is a beautiful book filled with pictures and stories of Sicily. I have browsed through it, lingering over the pictures and checking out the recipes, but have not yet had a chance to read much of the narrative. The recipes seem a little less precise than those you normally see in books and magazines, calling for a glass of wine, a “good glug” of marsalla, or a handful of mint leaves, but perhaps this is truer to the original recipes.
There were two things I especially liked about this recipe even before I had a chance to taste the meatballs. First, it makes a small quantity – it uses just 9 ounces of meat and makes about 15 smallish meatballs. I think the recipe could easily be doubled, but this quantity is enough for three meals for me. I also liked the way the meatballs were cooked – it looked easy and sounded yummy. The meatballs were shaped into slightly flattened rounds, browned on both sides (I get really frustrated trying to brown round meatballs!) and then simmered in wine, water, bay leaves, and (at the last minute) lemon juice. The cooking liquid is reduced and ultimately becomes a wonderful pan sauce that coats the meatballs.
I had to make two emergency substitutions, but the meatballs seemed to be none the worse for it. I thought I had dried bread crumbs on hand – but I was wrong. I considered substituting fresh bread crumbs but then remembered my Mom used to use saltine cracker crumbs when making meatloaf. I crushed 14 crackers in a plastic bag using my rolling pin and ended up with just over the ½ of cup of crumbs called for in the recipe. I didn’t add any salt since the crackers were salted. I also found that the only white wine I had on hand was the tail end of a bottle of white zinfandel – not exactly what you would expect to find in a Sicilian kitchen! But it all worked, and worked well. The meatballs were easy to handle, easy to cook, and fantastic to eat!
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Cooking
Meatballs with white wine, lemon & bay leaves
Not all my efforts in the kitchen this weekend were completely in vain. I made these meatballs following a recipe in Clarissa Hyman’s Cucina Siciliana, and I thought they were delicious.
It is a beautiful book filled with pictures and stories of Sicily. I have browsed through it, lingering over the pictures and checking out the recipes, but have not yet had a chance to read much of the narrative. The recipes seem a little less precise than those you normally see in books and magazines, calling for a glass of wine, a “good glug” of marsalla, or a handful of mint leaves, but perhaps this is truer to the original recipes.
There were two things I especially liked about this recipe even before I had a chance to taste the meatballs. First, it makes a small quantity – it uses just 9 ounces of meat and makes about 15 smallish meatballs. I think the recipe could easily be doubled, but this quantity is enough for three meals for me. I also liked the way the meatballs were cooked – it looked easy and sounded yummy. The meatballs were shaped into slightly flattened rounds, browned on both sides (I get really frustrated trying to brown round meatballs!) and then simmered in wine, water, bay leaves, and (at the last minute) lemon juice. The cooking liquid is reduced and ultimately becomes a wonderful pan sauce that coats the meatballs.
I had to make two emergency substitutions, but the meatballs seemed to be none the worse for it. I thought I had dried bread crumbs on hand – but I was wrong. I considered substituting fresh bread crumbs but then remembered my Mom used to use saltine cracker crumbs when making meatloaf. I crushed 14 crackers in a plastic bag using my rolling pin and ended up with just over the ½ of cup of crumbs called for in the recipe. I didn’t add any salt since the crackers were salted. I also found that the only white wine I had on hand was the tail end of a bottle of white zinfandel – not exactly what you would expect to find in a Sicilian kitchen! But it all worked, and worked well. The meatballs were easy to handle, easy to cook, and fantastic to eat!
- Lamb Meatballs Recipe
Nothing is more disappointing than a soggy french fry. There are lots of things I don’t just like crispy but extra crispy. Toast, onion rings, pizza crust, potato chips, breaded cutlets, pie crust, streusel. I could go on and on. And is there anything...
- Italian Sausage Meatballs Recipe
I could eat spaghetti and meatballs every night of the week. Of course my laundry bill would be astronomical. There are cleaning products for removing every possible stain including wine, coffee, ink and blood, but no one has invented a product to remove...
- Something Resembling Italian Wedding Soup: Souper Sundays
What's this? Two weeks in a row? I'd better be careful or you might start expecting more from me. A 'quick' & easier Italian Wedding Soup for dinner (and Souper Sundays). As always, we made two versions of this. One for Matt &...
- Cookbook Spotlight: Kitchen Sense
Have you seen my cookbook shelves? They're groaning under the strain of too many books. Ok, let's be honest: there's no such thing as too many cookbooks. Just too little bookshelf space! I'm slightly addicted to cookbooks, a substance...
- Pastry & Pasta & Egg & Meatball & Cheese &...
One of the strangest dishes I've ever made... Timpano a la Big Night, from Michael Chirarello. I happened to leave the TV on one evening, and found myself on the Fine Living Network. I don't really watch that channel...I mean, somewhere out there...