Pork and Ricotta Meatballs

Awhile back I came across this recipe in Food and Wine. The story mentioned that it was a beloved special run frequently at the restaurant A16 in San Francisco. As a foodie obsessed with the San Francisco food scene, I had to try this. When I was looking over the recipe, I was asking the boyfriend what he thought of some minor changes I thought of making to the recipe, his response was “just follow the damn recipe for once.” He makes a good point. So I did (mostly). Honestly, it was wonderful just as is; the one major thing I did was divide the recipe in half which is the recipe I have posted here. I generally am cooking for two and 24 meatballs seemed like a bit much. The 12 I ended up with seemed like too much…until all the leftovers disappeared the next day.

These pork meatballs were wonderful, they were amazingly moist, flavorful, and the sauce was thick with an earthy sweetness from the tomatoes. The only thing I would change (and is reflected in the recipe below) is extra tomatoes. Once everything cooked down I found myself craving more tomatoes. Granted, I served this as a spaghetti instead of just pork with tomatoes, I still think it would benefit from the extra tomatoes. This recipe is originally modified from Food and Wine.

Pork and Ricotta Meatballs (1/2 recipe)

Ingredients:

¼ lb (2 cups) white bread, crust removed cut into ½ inch dice

¾ lb lean ground pork

1 ½ oz thinly slice pancetta

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2.5 oz ricotta (about ¼ cup)

2 Tbs chopped flat leaf parsley

½ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp fennel seeds, crushed

¼ tsp crushed red pepper

Kosher salt

Two 28-oz cans whole peeled Italian tomatoes (San Marzano if available)

Freshly ground pepper

1 Tbs shredded basil

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

¼ cup freshly grated pecorino romano cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 400.

In a food processor pulse the bread to coarse crumbs. Transfer the crumbs to a large bowl. Grind the pancetta to a coarse paste in the food processor (you can also chop it finely, but I find this easier). Add the pork, pancetta, eggs, ricotta, parsley, oregano, fennel seeds, crushed red pepper and ¾ tsp kosher salt.

Mix well. Shape into 12 meatballs. The best tool for this is an ice cream scoop, but your hands will of course work as well. Transfer the meatballs to a medium roasting pan, oiled if it’s not non-stick.

Roast the meatballs in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning once at 15 minutes.

While the meatballs roast dump all the tomatoes into a large bowl and crush lightly with your hands. Mix in the minced garlic, 1 tsp of kosher salt, and a heavy couple grinds of pepper.

The meatballs should be browned. Using a spatula, loosen the meatballs from the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato mixture. Lower the oven temperature to 325 and cook uncovered for about 2 hours until the sauce is thick and the meatballs are very tender. Turn the meatballs once or twice during cooking.

Serve the meatballs over spaghetti (or on their own). Garnish with fresh basil and pecorino romano cheese.

A few notes:

I added garlic to the tomatoes because I love garlic and I felt like it. Feel free to omit it.

The meatball mixture is very wet, do not be surprised by this, just do your best to form them into balls.

In the past I haven’t ground my own bread crumbs. I usually use panko bread crumbs. I think the fresh bread crumbs really added to the moisture of the meatballs, so don’t skip this step.

-Sue

Whole Roasted Tomato Spaghetti

It is coming to the end of tomato season, and that makes me very very sad.

Now I know you can get tomatoes year round, but fresh farm grown tomatoes are just so much more delicious. To celebrate the end of the season I made this wonderful dish. The end result is very spaghetti like, but different. This recipe highlights the fresh flavor of the tomato while still bringing in some of the warmth of a slow cooked tomato sauce. This recipe comes from a wonderful collection of cook books called Canal House. I would highly recommend checking them out, they do seasonal cook books and this recipe is from volume number 1.

I of course modified it slightly.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of diced raw pancetta

6 Tbs extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the pasta

1 cup coarse bread crumbs (fresh if you can)

4 whole tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 Tbs capers

4 leaves of fresh basil

Salt and pepper

½ lb of spaghetti

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice off the tops of the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds, they should look like this.

Fry the pancetta in a skillet over medium heat until browned and crisp around the edges. Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta from the skillet. Leave the rendered fat in the skillet, add 2 Tbs of olive oil and the thinly sliced garlic. Saute until the garlic is fragrant and slightly softened. Add the bread crumbs and the capers, cook stirring often until the bread crumbs are golden.

Put the tomatoes cut side up in a baking dish. Sprinkle each tomato with salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mound the breadcrumb mixture into each tomato and top with pancetta. Drizzle each tomato with one Tbs of olive oil.

Roast the tomatoes in the oven until they have softened but are not collapsed. This took me about 45 minutes, but it depends on the size of your tomatoes. I would check on them after 45 minutes.

Cook the spaghetti while the tomatoes are roasting. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and return to pot. Drizzle with olive oil and toss the pasta with a sprinkle of salt and few grinds of pepper. When the tomatoes are done spoon out any of the juices from the tomatoes and add to the pasta, toss again to coat.

Place a portion of spaghetti onto a plate or a shallow bowl, and top with one roasted tomato. Top with torn basil pieces and a bit of parmesan cheese.

A few notes:

Seriously, these were so delicious. If you want to make a “fancy” spaghetti, I highly recommend this.

I used two red tomatoes and two heirloom tomatoes (as you see in the pictures above) the heirloom tomatoes did not hold up to the roasting, I don’t know if this was because they are at the end of the season and they were a little overly ripe, or if it was just the variety. In the future I would stick with good old fashioned big red tomatoes.

The original recipe calls for sauteing 2 anchovy fillets in the olive oil with the garlic. I had no anchovies, but I had capers, so I used those. I think either would be delicious.

-Sue