Turkey and Pork Meatballs with Orecchiette Pasta and Spinach-Almond Pesto

I know this pasta dish looks completely ridiculous. I was in something of hunger-induced hurry to get to the eating part of the evening, and I didn't take the time I should have to photograph what ended up being a wonderful meal.

Dave and I had my lovely new friend Jessi over for dinner a few weeks ago, and if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that means we had to eat something both New and Interesting. I'd recently brought the Top Chef cookbook home, and Dave promptly picked this recipe. (You can see the second recipe chosen from this book here.)

I am lucky to work across the street from where I live, so I popped home at lunch to mix the meatballs and ball them and make the pesto. I like getting as much as possible done before we have company, makes for easier chatting and whatnot.

The meatballs came together perfectly well. I always find it funny when making balls of things. You try to make them uniform, and you think you are, until you're done and you can see the ball progression.... little by little, they all get bigger and bigger. This leads me to....

Holy Garlic Whoa. Did you see how much garlic is in the pesto? Whoa 12 garlics, whoa. It wasn't too much flavor-wise (at least, I didn't think so), so don't let it scare you. Honestly, you only use enough pesto to coat, and that small amount needs to do the job of flavoring the vegetables and pasta - so it should be strong. But man, 12 garlics is scary. I don't know why we planned to serve our guest so many garlics her first night over, but she's still nice to me, so I guess I'm safe.

I will tell you that the recipe lies. Yes, it was on Top Chef, and they have time limits and all that, but its still television - and television is often fibbing. The mass of vegetables need more than 5 minutes to cook. Maybe more like 20. And while the big carrots are charming, their bigness makes it really difficult to stir the vegetables around with the pasta and meatballs. Just my two cents - these two grievances are easily manageable and don't detract much from the overall experience.

And that overall experience? Very good. This was a nice, wholesome dish. The possible heaviness of the pasta and vegetables is easily brightened by the pesto. The pasta, in fact, provided a nice bite as compared to the vegetables. Lots of steps, sure, but uncomplicated ones, and well worth it.

I am excited to be able to share this pasta with Ruth of Once Upon A Feast. She is the creater of Presto Pasta Nights (check out its new home!!) and one of the nicest people in the blogosphere. She is hosting PPN this week, so make sure to look for her round-up tomorrow!


Turkey and Pork Meatballs with Orecchiette Pasta and Spinach-Almond Pesto
c/o Top Chef: The Cookbook
recipe by Casey and Dale, Season 3, Episode 6

Turkey and pork meatballs:
½ pound ground turkey
½ pound ground pork
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon minced onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons white wine
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon red pepper chile flakes
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed

Vegetables and pasta:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups cauliflower florets
1 cup baby carrots
One 14-ounce jar artichoke hearts, each cut in half
1 packed cup fresh spinach leaves
1 tablespoon white wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound orecchiette pasta, cooked al dente

Spinach-Almond Pesto, recipe follows

For the meatballs:
In a large bowl, stir together all the meatball ingredients except the oil and form into meatballs about ¾ inch in diameter.

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking and cook the meatballs, in batches, turning them as they cook, until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add more oil to the skillet with new batches as necessary. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a wire rack to drain. Set aside.

For the vegetables and pasta:
In a large sauté pan or skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the cauliflower, carrots, and artichokes and sauté until softened but al dente, about 5 minutes.

Add the spinach and cook for 1 minute, or until just wilted. Add the wine and cook until evaporated. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Add the orecchiette and meatballs to the vegetables and stir to combine. Add enough pesto to coat, then heat to warm through. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve immediately.


Spinach-Almond Pesto
10 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole, plus 2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
½ cup sliced almonds, toasted
4 ounces fresh spinach, plus more as needed
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more as needed
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more as needed
2 tablespoons white wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a medium saucepan, bring the whole garlic and oil to a bare simmer over low heat and poach until softened and lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool.

Combine the cooked garlic along with its cooking oil in a food processor. Add the minced raw garlic, the almonds, spinach, cheese, lemon juice, wine and salt and pepper to taste and puree. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. Set aside until you’re ready to assemble the dish.

See the recipe...

Pappardelle with a Ragu of Tiny Meatballs

Science! Hurry up and learn to clone people (but not in a scary Island kind of way), so you can make many many more Jamie Olivers. Many. Lots. Enough to go around, I say. Please put me on your list for three Jamies. Thanks.

I am smitten with his show, for sure. I have a lot of love for his books, too. His last one, Cook with Jamie, looks all rough-and-tumble on the cover. Yah, he's smiling... but his arms are crossed... and that knife in the counter? He just stab that in there an then vamp for the camera? Love it.

He's spot on when he says that you can make it all ahead of time. I made the meatballs and sauce while Dave was at a hockey game last week. I stopped at the "toss the meatballs into the sauce"step, before the 10-15 minutes of additional simmering. I let it cool and then put the whole pot in the fridge. The next night, I took the pot out when I got home, placed it on the stove and gave it gentle heat while I made the pasta. In the time it took me to make the pasta start to finish, the sauce and meatballs were ready and we had this amazing dinner. (Makes a great lunch the day after, too!)

You may think it weird to put cinnamon and so much nutmeg into meatballs (its ok, I did too). I even thought it a tad strange to be putting lemon zest into them. You'll get over it. Don't worry. You'll like it. I figured, if I like them in my bolognese, I'd like them in these meatballs. And I did.

These tiny meatballs have something really special going for them: they're tiny. You don't have to fight over them, you don't have to cut into them to get a bite. Just swirl some pasta on your fork and stab a meatball and you're set! Also nice - the sauce wasn't big and bulky. There was just enough to coat the meatballs and the pasta without junking the place up. (However, I don't know if that's normal or just how it turned out that way once I reheated it.)

Now, you don't have to make this recipe ahead. It didn't take long to pull together. I only did so because I had the free time that evening with the husband away, and my beef thawed faster than I thought it would. If we'd had extra leftovers, I am sure this would have made a nice freezer dinner, too.


Pappardelle with a Ragu of Tiny Meatballs
c/o Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook, by Jamie Oliver

This is a fantastic, classic, easy-pleaser of a dish. Make this for a dinner party or for your family and you’ll be incredibly popular! The brilliant thing about it is that you can make the meatballs, the pasta, and the sauce in advance, so when it comes to putting it all together it can be quite quick. If you’re making fresh pasta, try cutting it out using a crinkly cutter as I’ve done in this picture – I think it just takes it to another league. Of course you can use dried pappardelle or tagliatelle instead.

When it comes to the meatballs, I would suggest that you ask your butcher to grind the beef in front of you; that way you know exactly what you’re getting and that it’s nice and fresh. The reason I mention this is because very often (and I’m not for a minute suggesting your butcher is a con-man) ground meat gets treated a little bit like a dustbin for random cuts of meat. So if you can be specific about what you want, you might as well be. Or you can buy the cuts of meat yourself and pulse them up in your food processor when you get home.

Serves 4-6.

1 x basic pasta dough or use 1 lb good-quality dried pappardelle
A knob of butter
Parmesan cheese

For the meatballs
1 lb good-quality coarse ground beef (chuck, skirt or brisket)
1-2 dried chilies, crumbled
A pinch of ground cinnamon
½ a nutmeg, grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large free-range or organic egg
A handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
Zest of 1 lemon

For the tomato sauce
Olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
A bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped
1 fresh red chili, pierced with the tip of a knife
2 x 14 oz. cans good-quality plum tomatoes
A little swig of red wine vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you’re making fresh pappardelle to this first and lay it out on a floured pan while you get on with the meatballs and tomato sauce. To make your meatballs, mix and scrunch together all the meatball ingredients in your hands and shape into marble-sized balls. When rolling the meatballs, run your hands under cold water every now and then – it will help to make the meatballs dense and hold their shape better. Place them in a pan and put in the fridge while you make your tomato sauce.

Get a pan on the heat and add a glug of olive oil to it. Gently fry the garlic, basil stalks and the whole chili, then add the tomatoes and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper then gently simmer for half an hour.

Heat up a little olive oil in a frying pan and throw in your meatballs. Cook until they’ve got a really good color on them, and then add them to your tomato sauce. Remove the chili from the sauce and check for seasoning. Continue to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, if you’re using dried pasta, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook according to the package instructions. Otherwise, when your meatballs are almost done, cook your fresh pasta for 2 to 3 minutes until al dente. Drain the pappardelle in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water, then toss it in the meatball sauce. Add the knob of butter, the Parmesan and tear over half the basil leaves. Now, toss around to coat the pasta. Add a little bit of cooking water to loosen the sauce if needed. When it’s superb, serve on a big platter or divide up between individual plates, scatter with the rest of the basil leaves, grate over some Parmesan and serve as soon as possible.

Matt’s wine suggestion: Italian red – Sangiovese

See the recipe...

Pork-and-Ricotta Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

For Father's Day, I wanted to make a nice manly dinner. As our dad's aren't local, it was just the two of us, but that doesn't mean we couldn't get into the spirit of things! :)

After a successful first try with meatballs, I wanted to give them another go. I'd saved this recipe from the April issue of Food & Wine magazine because it struck me as interesting - 1/2 lb of bread? Ricotta - in a meatball? What? Now, you Experienced Meatballers might not have found that mix of ingredients captivating (I knew about breadcrumbs in meatloaf... but... this seemed different... I mean... HALF A POUND DIFFERENT!!!) :)

We'd had a nice, lazy afternoon of pooltime and video games before I thought to check on how long these meatballs were supposed to cook (2.5 hours), so at about 4:30 pm, I dashed into the kitchen to get started. Seriously, the prep took about 5 minutes. Maybe 7. I processed the bread, then blitzed the pancetta, herbs and spices, hand mixed it, balled it, and boom, into the oven. After the first 30 minutes, I added in the sauce and put the whole mess back into the oven for 2 hours.

I found the meatballs to be light and flavorful. Because I'd only lightly hand-mixed them, each ball had slightly different seasoning, and I thought that was pretty cool. We did think that the sauce was a little boring and already have plans to use different sauce on the leftovers. I def. recommend these, just sass up the sauce. (And I can't wait to use these in a sammich!!)

Pork-and-Ricotta Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Food and Wine Magazine, April 2007
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pork-and-ricotta-meatballs-in-tomato-sauce

1/2 pound sliced white bread, crusts removed and bread cut into 1/2-inch dice (4 cups)
1 1/2 pounds lean ground pork
3 ounces thickly sliced pancetta, minced
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup ricotta cheese (5 ounces)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Kosher salt
Two 28-ounce cans peeled Italian tomatoes, crushed
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons shredded basil
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a food processor, pulse the bread to coarse crumbs. Transfer the crumbs to a large bowl and add the pork, pancetta, eggs, ricotta, parsley, oregano, fennel seeds, crushed red pepper and 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt. Mix well. Shape into 24 meatballs, using about 3 rounded tablespoons of the mixture for each. Transfer the meatballs to an oiled medium roasting pan.

Roast the meatballs in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until firm and just beginning to brown. Using a spatula, loosen the meatballs from the bottom of the pan. Add the crushed tomatoes to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Lower the oven temperature to 325° and cook uncovered for about 2 hours, or until the sauce is very thick and the meatballs are very tender; turn the meatballs once or twice during cooking.

Transfer the meatballs and tomato sauce to a large platter. Garnish with the basil and Pecorino and serve hot.

MAKE AHEAD The cooked meatballs can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. Reheat and garnish just before serving.

See the recipe...