"Spaghetti and Meatballs"

Linguine with Meatballs, with Apologies to Secondo

To quote from the awesome scene in Big Night where Stanley Tucci has to take the order from a woman who wants both risotto and pasta, two primi, for dinner:

        Lady: "There are no meatballs with the spaghetti?"
        Secondo: "Sometimes the spaghetti likes to be alone."

I chuckle about this every time I make pasta and meatballs. But at home, where we have to wash the dishes, one-dish meals are paramount and when we're watching a movie with dinner, a necessity. So, forgive me Secondo, but our meatballs last night were not alone: they needed company! But I say no to spaghetti. I need more substance in my pasta. My preference in long pasta is for bucatini/perciatelli, but Barilla fettuccine is the closest we can get at the two-bit store next to the house.

The tricks for good meatballs are: you can rarely have too much fat, you need more liquid in the meat than you think you do, a little panko does wonders, and only work the forcemeat enough to mix it and no more.

Raw Meatballs

If I say so myself, I make fantastic meatballs. I make so much charcuterie at the restaurant that working with forcemeats is second nature by now and it really is nothing to throw together a batch of meatballs. This is two pounds of ground pork-veal-beef mixture (I wanted ground pork, but the two-bit store next to the house doesn't carry it: the guy behind the counter says that nobody cooks anymore.) with minced garlic, dried basil, salt, pepper, a touch of pimentón, a cup of panko, and maybe three ounces of heavy cream.

I never use a recipe for meatballs: pretty much anything goes. Same for the marinara. I fill a blender jar with chopped tomatoes, some minced garlic, a fair amount of basil, a couple ounces of extra virgin olive oil, and a bit of salt. Blend just until the sauce becomes fluid and over the meatballs it goes. Braise in a moderate oven (350F) for a couple of hours. Timing is certainly not critical.

And Two Hours Later Aftter Braising in Marinara