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Author Topic: Food: Neapolitan-American Meatballs  (Read 3024 times)

DIASPORA-1963

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Neapolitan-American Meatballs
« on: March 15, 2016, 07:40:29 pm »
Few Americans realize that spaghetti & meatballs is really an American dish - Italian-American food, as opposed to Italian food. Italians eat spaghetti, yes, and meatballs, yes, but not together. Meatballs are more likely to wind up in zuppe - soups, ie - or to be eaten as a snack. Italian meatballs vary from region to region, too. For the most part, they do not resemble Italian-American meatballs, especially in the amount of meat that's in them - there tends to be a lot more bread than meat in real Italian meatballs.

Anyway, my father's family was from Naples, & this is their recipe for meatballs ala Americana - that is, w/the much greater amount of meat that is used in America taken into account.

2 lbs of well-marbled chopped beef (do not get the leanest available - that is for fiends who can do w/o taste)
1 lb of chopped pork loin
1 lb of chopped veal (you can use murdered turkey, if you feel bad for baby cows)
Put all in a great, big bowl.
Roll up your sleeves, remove your rings, wash your paws.
GENTLY fold the meats together - no squeezing, no pounding, just gentle folding!
When well mixed, form a well in the center by gently pushing the meat to the sides of the bowl.
Wash your paws.
Crack 3 eggs into that well.
Add 2 tablespoons of WHOLE milk into that well.
Add 1/8 cup of grated cheese of your choice into that well.
Chop up a few cloves of garlic & toss them into that well.
Chop up a nice wad of basil & toss it into that well.
Toss about a teaspoon of salt into that well. (Let people put salt on at the table. Better not to over-salt while cooking. Plus, salt shrinks the meatballs.)
Now add about a teaspoon of powdered garlic, powdered onion, and powdered oregano into that well.
Then add 2 cups of seasoned (Italian) breadcrumbs.
When you get that all in there, it's time to get your hands dirty again - go ahead & fold the meat back together into a big, evenly mixed ball - gently, gently, until everything is all evenly mixed together - no pounding, no hard squeezing!
Now, pinch off some, roll into a meatball between your two palms, repeat until the one big ball has been turned into a heap of small balls.
To pre-fry or not pre-fry - a raging debate in all families!
I always do. I brown the balls just a bit to tighten them, get some fat out of them.
I do not fry them long enough to cook them - just enough to brown the surface a little. Then they go into the oven to cook. After they are cooked and drained of their excess fat, they go into the Sunday gravy. Even then, there's still plenty of grease to drag from the top of the pot w/a spoon before serving.
I cook them in the oven at 350 for about 1/2 an hour. That cooks the excess fat out of them. Then I drop them slowly into the Sunday gravy. If anyone is interested, I will provide the recipe for that.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 01:47:01 pm by RandallS »
MARK aka CELLVLANVS MAGVS
OMNIA DEPENDET!

Nerys53

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Re: Neapolitan-American Meatballs
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2016, 08:29:10 am »
Quote from: DIASPORA-1963;188188
Few Americans realize that spaghetti & meatballs is really an American dish - Italian-American food, as opposed to Italian food. Italians eat spaghetti, yes, and meatballs, yes, but not together. Meatballs are more likely to wind up in zuppe - soups, ie - or to be eaten as a snack. Italian meatballs vary from region to region, too. For the most part, they do not resemble Italian-American meatballs, especially in the amount of meat that's in them - there tends to be a lot more bread than meat in real Italian meatballs.

Anyway, my father's family was from Naples, & this is their recipe for meatballs ala Americana - that is, w/the much greater amount of meat that is used in America taken into account.

2 lbs of well-marbled chopped beef (do not get the leanest available - that is for fiends who can do w/o taste)
1 lb of chopped pork loin
1 lb of chopped veal (you can use murdered turkey, if you feel bad for baby cows)
Put all in a great, big bowl.
Roll up your sleeves, remove your rings, wash your paws.
GENTLY fold the meats together - no squeezing, no pounding, just gentle folding!
When well mixed, form a well in the center by gently pushing the meat to the sides of the bowl.
Wash your paws.
Crack 3 eggs into that well.
Add 2 tablespoons of WHOLE milk into that well.
Add 1/8 cup of grated cheese of your choice into that well.
Chop up a few cloves of garlic & toss them into that well.
Chop up a nice wad of basil & toss it into that well.
Toss about a teaspoon of salt into that well. (Let people put salt on at the table. Better not to over-salt while cooking. Plus, salt shrinks the meatballs.)
Now add about a teaspoon of powdered garlic, powdered onion, and powdered oregano into that well.
Then add 2 cups of seasoned (Italian) breadcrumbs.
When you get that all in there, it's time to get your hands dirty again - go ahead & fold the meat back together into a big, evenly mixed ball - gently, gently, until everything is all evenly mixed together - no pounding, no hard squeezing!
Now, pinch off some, roll into a meatball between your two palms, repeat until the one big ball has been turned into a heap of small balls.
To pre-fry or not pre-fry - a raging debate in all families!
I always do. I brown the balls just a bit to tighten them, get some fat out of them.
I do not fry them long enough to cook them - just enough to brown the surface a little. Then they go into the oven to cook. After they are cooked and drained of their excess fat, they go into the Sunday gravy. Even then, there's still plenty of grease to drag from the top of the pot w/a spoon before serving.
I cook them in the oven at 350 for about 1/2 an hour. That cooks the excess fat out of them. Then I drop them slowly into the Sunday gravy. If anyone is interested, I will provide the recipe for that.

 
Hi, Happy Easter tomorrow.
I will reduce the recipe to a smaller size and try this .
Yesterday BBC tv UK had a Mary Berry Easter Feast cookery programme they showed the  colomba di pasqua/ easter dove bread. Would you know of a site with more info on Italian pastry, cakes, easter breads etc? :)
I have the Italian recipes Sunset cookbook from the seventies.

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