Spaghetti and meatballs doesn’t have to be a meal
that you simmer all day, nor does it need to put you into hibernation once
you’ve eaten it.
Other great meatball recipes rely on milk or even
mayonnaise for their tenderness and personality. This one from Rao’s restaurant in New York City has the most unexpected secret
ingredient of all: lots of tepid water. It’s going to look like way too much (2
cups for 2 pounds of meat?). You will also doubt you can serve very many people
with this. But that’s before you dump your water over the rest of your
ingredients, and see the bread crumbs quickly start rehydrating.
Like little sponges, they suck up all available liquid, expanding and lightening
the mix. Now you have meat, garlic, cheese, and herbs, all delicately clinging
together with a little egg and a lot more wet, willing bread.
I’ve found that you can mix, shape, and fry these
meatballs in exactly the time it takes to whip up Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce
with onion and butter. Then you’ll plunk them into the sauce for 15 minutes
to finish cooking. You could just slip them straight into the sauce to cook
instead, but when you fry until they’re good and brown first, you’re invoking
the Maillard reaction—caramelizing all the cobbled surfaces and cranking up the
rich, meaty flavor, which it then generously shares with the sauce.
Whether you want to tell your guests that their
spaghetti and meatballs took 1 hour, not 10 (and mention the pint of water),
that’s up to you.
Makes about 28
meatballs
1 pound (450g) lean ground
beef
8 ounces (225g) ground
veal
8 ounces (225g) ground
pork
2 large eggs
1 cup (100g) freshly grated
Pecorino Romano cheese
1½ tablespoons chopped fresh
flat-leaf parsley
½ small clove garlic,
minced
Kosher salt or sea
salt
Freshly ground black
pepper
2 cups (165g) fresh bread
crumbs
2 cups (475ml) lukewarm
water
1 cup (240ml) good-quality olive
oil, for cooking
Your favorite marinara sauce
(such as Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce
with onion and butter)
Pasta, for serving
(optional)
1 Combine the beef, veal, and pork in a large bowl. Add
the eggs, cheese, parsley, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Using your
hands, blend the ingredients together. Mix the bread crumbs into the meat
mixture. Slowly add the water, 1 cup (240ml) at a time, until the mixture is
quite moist. (If you want to make sure the seasoning is to your liking, fry off
a small test meatball, taste, and adjust.) Shape into 2½- to 3-inch (6.5 to
7.5cm) balls.
2 Heat the oil in a large sauté pan. When the oil is
very hot but not smoking, fry the meatballs in batches. When the bottom half of
each meatball is very brown and slightly crisp, turn and cook the top half.
Remove from the heat and drain on paper towels.
3 Heat the marinara sauce to simmering. Lower the
cooked meatballs into the simmering sauce and cook for 15 minutes. Serve alone
or with pasta.
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