THE WINE: Il
Palazzino 2000 Chianti Classico "La Pieve"- Tuscano, Italy (scroll
down)
THE DISH: Hearty Cal-Ital Meatballs
with Winter Fresh Tomato Sauce
(Yield: makes 12-16 meatballs for 4-6
main-dish portions)
Yes, it's kind of an oxy-moron to even
consider fresh tomato sauce in winter! Unless
you're one of the industrious that owns a tomato-press (available by
mail-order from William-Sonoma) and has summer tomato puree on hand
(you know who you are, Mr. and Mrs. B.), the rest of you will have to
suffice with the following substitute. Regardless
of your tomato prowess, it's really worth it to take the time to make
the sauce for the incredible meatball recipe that follows.
If you're going to take the time and elevate something as simple
as meatballs to a dish that's transcendental, you may as well make the
sauce too!!! Oh, and having an herb garden with
woody seasonal herbs available helps immensely too!
For the Winter-Fresh Tomato Sauce:
olive oil to coat the bottom of a 6-8 quart
pot
1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
5 pounds Roma (plum) tomatoes, cut into large
dice
2 large sprigs fresh thyme (or a generous
pinch of dried)
2 large sprigs fresh oregano (or a generous
pinch of dried)
1 small sprig of fresh rosemary (or a pinch
of dried)
generous pinch or 2 of salt (preferably
kosher)
pinch of sugar
dash of balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried, torn into 2 pieces
1 clove garlic, smashed
Heat the oil in a large stockpot. Add the onion, and sautÈ over medium high heat
until translucent and starting to caramelize. Reduce
heat to medium, and add tomatoes, thyme, oregano, and rosemary and cook
until the tomatoes are mushy.
Puree the tomato mixture in a food mill, and
return to pot. Add the salt, sugar, vinegar,
bay leaf, and garlic, and simmer until thickened. Stir
occasionally during reduction. Once the tomato
sauce has reached the desired consistency, remove the bay leaf and
garlic. Keep sauce warm over very low heat.
For the Meatballs:
This recipe calls for oven-roasting the meatballs, which
makes clean-up a snap (no splattered, greasy stovetop), and provides
for nicely caramelized meatballs without a lot of oiliness. Alternatively, the meatballs may be fried in a
scant amount of oil on top of the stove while turning frequently.
Preheat oven to 500?, with rack placed in
lower quadrant.
1 lb. ground beef chuck
1/2 lb. hot Italian sausage, removed from
casings
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (preferably from a
"toothsome" style bread, such as Italian
slipper
bread (ciabatta), or French sweet baguette
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese (+
extra, reserved for garnish)
1/3 cup chopped Italian parsley (+ extra,
reserved for garnish)
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup currants
1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt (preferably kosher)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a
garlic press
Gently combine beef chuck and sausage in a
large bowl using two forks to incorporate. Add
the bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, pine nuts, currants, Italian
seasoning, salt, pepper flakes and ground black pepper to the meat
mixture. Combine the eggs with the minced
garlic, and pour over "dry" ingredients. Using
your hands, mix all of the ingredients together, being careful to not
overwork while blending.
Moisten your hands with cold water, and form
about 1/4 to 1/3 cup meat mixture into balls with an approximate
diameter of 2 inches (picture an over-sized golf ball).
Preheat a large, oven-proof, nonstick pan
(12" or more, or use a combination of smaller pans) in hot oven for
about 2 minutes. Remove hot pans from oven, and
place meatballs in skillet(s) without them touching each other. Roast for 4 minutes, then turn meatballs. Continue roasting and turning meatballs so as to
evenly brown, for a total of 3 turns and 16 minutes in the oven.
Turn off oven. Remove
cooked meatballs and place on a paper-towel lined plate.
Return meatballs to warm oven, and allow to "rest" while pasta
boils.
Plating the spaghetti and meatballs:
Cook spaghetti according to
"al dente" package instructions. Before
draining, save some of the cooking water to use if you'd like to adjust
the consistency of the sauce. Return pasta to
cooking pot, and spoon a couple of ladlefuls of tomato sauce onto
noodles. Using a pasta spoon, toss the pasta
and sauce until coated and colorful, adding more sauce as needed. Put a portion of lightly sauced pasta into a large
warm shallow bowl. Place 2 or 3 meatballs on
top of pasta. Spoon a generous amount of sauce
over meatballs and pasta. Sprinkle with chopped
parsley and cheese before serving.
-Original recipe by RenÈe
Kroeger adapted from Naples at
Table, by Arthur Schwartz, and The Complete Meat Cookbook by
Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly-
THE WINE: Il Palazzino 2000 Chianti
Classico "La Pieve" - Tuscano, Italy
- $22.50 ($19.13)
Like most high quality Chianti
Classico this wine has the natural acidity to play off the fresh tangy
acid of the tomato sauce. Composed of 95% Sangiovese, with 5%
Malvasia Nera, the wine offers a purity of fruit and concentration
rarely found in Chianti Classico at this price value. But
wait! There is more! The
wine's dark ruby saturated color reflects a purplish
hue; evidence that the dark fruits have a higher level of ripeness on
the palate that becomes more obvious when one bites into the withered
cassis studded meatballs! Wowie!
Zowie! A major pleasure explosion that
forces you to gobble and guzzle. Honestly! Figure a bottle per person. Skip
the before dinner Negroni.
Now available to purchase or order at
The Wine Consultant!!
Eric Stumpf
RenÈe Kroeger
The Wine Consultant
8039 Greenback Lane
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
(916) 721-WINE (9463)
info@TheWineConsultant.com
