Marvelous Meatballs

I love meatballs. I really do. Meatball subs, spaghetti and meatballs, meatball panini..it doesn’t matter how they are served, I just love them. The trick to making a good meatball, is to bake it in the oven. Yup, in the oven! You don’t boil it, you don’t sear it, you bake it, and then once cooked, it is transferred to the sauce. The other trick to making good meatballs? You use a mix of ground beef, veal and pork. Try out my classic recipe for your next Italian night and you won’t be disappointed!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground veal
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1 large eggs beaten
• 1/2 c grated Parmigiano cheese–it doesn’t take much to grate this fresh, so please do!
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 1 cup breadcrumbs–if you have fresh, it is preferred. If not, then dry will do fine.
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

It’s pretty obvious how you make the meatballs–just mix everything together in a bowl, and then shape the meatballs. I use a cookie scoop to make sure each meatball is the same shape, and then I roll them individually. My recommendation is to not smash the meatballs together too tightly. You don’t want them to be too dense.

Well, here they all nicely lined up and ready to bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. 

Once they are nicely browned, and cooked through… 

…you have a few options. 1) freeze them for later! 2) create a meatball sub or a meatball panini 3) add them to marinara sauce and enjoy some good old fashioned spaghetti and meatballs!

You can see which option I went for! I mix everything all together so all the flavors melded together.

Now, would you call this a plate of good food?

Cheesy Lasagna

I’d like to consider my lasagna special. It took me a while to master it, but once I did, there was no turning back. I don’t make lasagna that often–it uses way too many pots/pans, but when I do make it, I go all out making sure it is top notch. Here’s how I make it special.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 pound ground sausage (if you can’t find any, just remove the casings from links)
• 1/2 pound ground turkey
• 8 oz baby bella mushrooms chopped
• 1 jar of Emeril’s Kicked Up Tomato Sauce (or any sauce you like)
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 8 oz container whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 16 oz block of mozzarella thinly sliced
• 1 egg beaten
• 16 lasagna noodles

Tomato Meat Sauce

While many people use ground beef, I use a 50/50 mixture of ground turkey and ground sausage. Ground sausage alone is too heavy and ground turkey alone is boring. I combine the two for the perfect flavor! The two are browned in a skillet with olive oil and the mushrooms. Once cooked through, add the tomato sauce and check the flavor to see if it needs more salt. Sausage can be salty at times, so the brand you buy will impact how much additional salt you need. Let this simmer for as much time as you have so the flavors can combine nicely. Now, yes, I know I used a short cut here with the jarred sauce, but I really like that sauce, and sometimes I just need a slight break! If you want to make your own italian sauce, I won’t try to convince you otherwise!

Cheese filing

For the cheese, you’re going to mix the Ricotta cheese, 2 cups of the shredded cheese, the beaten egg and about 1/4 cup of the chopped parsley.

Here, the amount of shredded cheese that is mixed into the ricotta ensures that the cheese layer is not just bland ricotta, but gooey mozzarella as well.

In the meantime the lasagna noodles are boiled in salted water. Don’t forget to salt the water. Salt = flavor. Don’t over cook the noodles either. Remember that they have to bake further in the oven.

Once all the components are ready, it’s time to assemble. You’ll notice in the picture below I am using a ceramic baking dish and not a glass one. I once had a bad experience with a pyrex dish exploding on me, so ever since then, I only buy ceramic dishes.

One third of the meat sauce goes in the bottom of a baking dish. The noodles are layered on, and 1/3 of the ricotta mixture is spread on top of them. Here comes my next secret. The sliced mozzarella is then layered on the ricotta cheese mixture.

I know this is a lot of cheese, but trust me, if you like cheese, this makes for an amazing lasagna! Repeat the layering until all the ingredients are used up. The top layer should be finished with the noodles and the sliced mozzarella. Fill any holes between the mozzarella slices with some of the shredded mozzarella that was left over. Sprinkle the top with the rest of the chopped parsley and we are ready to bake in the oven.

The oven should be set to 375 degrees and the lasagna is baked for about 45 minutes, or until it is bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown. Do not slice the lasagna straight out of the oven. You’ll end up with a puddle of lasagna everywhere. Let is set for about 10-15 minutes and then serve it up!

Add some fresh garlic bread, or a nice garden salad and you have enough good food to feed a small army!

Bolognese…You Mean Meat Sauce?

Okay. It’s safe to say I love good food, and I’m ok with trying out recipes that are a bit involved…(hello?!? Did you see that Samosa recipe?)

That all being said, I’m also a self proclaimed lazy girl, which results in many days of take out. Gross, I know, but I can’t help it. As much as I love Chinese dumplings and lo mein, everyone needs some easy and quick homemade meals in their recipe box.

Enter what people call bolognese sauce aka meat sauce. Not hard to make, right? But how does one, in the words of Emeril, kick it up a notch? Well…

Start with fresh vegetables and herbs–so important. I use onions, peppers, garlic, mushrooms, celery, carrots, parsley, basil…whatever is on hand.

You’ll notice I used red onions here. Why you ask? For a very important reason…it’s all I had in the house!! Ha!

Brown the meat with the vegetables, cooking them until they are tender. Add a little red wine, as it really boosts the flavor and adds some depth to it. Please, please don’t buy cooking wine. It’s grossly over salted. Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes if using them and any additional dried herbs you’re using. I often cook with chili powder, red pepper flakes, dried basil, dried oregano, and please don’t forget your salt and pepper! 

Alright, now that our sauce is simmering away we of course need some pasta to go with it, right? A large pot of salted water is set on the stove to boil. My father always scolds me for boiling too much water and I always try to explain to him that you want a lot of water so the temperature of the water doesn’t drop too much when you add the pasta…but he doesn’t listen to me. To each their own!

Once the pasta is in the water and has cooked for a few minutes, the water becomes nice and starchy. That’s when you laddle a few spoons full of pasta water into the tomato sauce. Again, another important step to not skip! Adding the pasta water thickens the sauce and helps marry it to the pasta. When the pasta is almost done cooking, I add it straight from the water into the same pan as the pasta sauce and allow it to all cook together for a few minutes. This is how the pasta absorbs all the sauce and becomes truly flavorful. 

Voila! There you have it. A simple, yet elevated meal to enjoy when you’re too lazy to cook and are sick of take out! I’ve said it before, I’ll continue to say it–I’m just enjoying good food my friends!