Not Perfect, but maybe just Better....

Somehow, after reading the silly Molly Wizenberg “Perfect Meatball” lunacy in a recent magazine, the thought of meatballs lingered in the gray matter. And, when our latest copy of Cook’s (cooking for engineers) Illustrated showed up with a recipe: “Better Spaghetti and Meatballs”, it drove us over the edge. We’re going to have a reunion of the Irish travelers tonight, and somehow the thought of bringing meatballs to the party was intriguing (Ireland/Italian – it all starts with “I”). So we embarked on creating the “better meatball”. One attraction of this recipe was that the little spheres started out in the oven, avoiding that always messy “brown the meatballs on all sides” step so common for this dish. So we assembled just a few simple ingredients



And began the basic prep work





Gradually filling up the bowl



And at the end adding the buttermilk and panko bread crumb paste



Combined everything (with good safe food handling practices)



Until there was a homogenous lump o’stuff



Then forming the little orbs for the oven – Note we DID NOT use the Molly recommended “Form your hand into a claw” approach. Sheesh…



Meanwhile the sauce was prepared (with the San Marzano tomatoes of course)



Then they were baked in the oven until “browned”, then added them to the sauce and cooked and reduced until we had the final product.



Of course Cook’s has to be different, some of the nuances included the panko breadcrumbs, the use of gelatin (“adds suppleness”), buttermilk, eggs, and some thinly sliced prosciutto added to the ground beef and pork. The sauce calls for white wine and tomato juice, but no tomato paste.. another quirk. The recipe is a bit long for inclusion so just refer to your Issue 107 of Cook's Illustrated on page 14 and 15.


While we won’t taste them in the sauce (we separated them of ease of storage) until tonight, a sneaked cold meatball was fairly tasty. Even had a little bite to it. So maybe they might be a little “better” we’ll let you know. Wonder how they’ll taste with Guinness!!

We're looking forward to the Irish reunion tonight, be great to see each other again, relive some stories (the next potty stop is HOW FAR!!??!!) and of course since I trained them, they will all be

DFD