Cooking like a conservative not only requires but celebrates cultural appropriation: the adoption of dishes from other countries’ cuisines, which is, after all, an American tradition. Frequently, such dishes receive an American twist, as is the case with Italian food. The American variants of Italian cuisine evolved out of the simple cookery of the first large wave of Italian immigrants, who mostly came from the south of Italy and Sicily. Olive oil, tomatoes, vegetables, various herbs, pasta, bread, cheese, chicken, beef and veal set the tone for the Italian food most familiar to Americans: lasagna, chicken and veal Parmesan, and pastas with tomato-based meat sauces, of which the most famous is spaghetti and meatballs.
But an American visitor to Italy would search in vain for that iconic dish. Though Italian cuisine does wonderful things with meats and meat-based sauces, spaghetti and meatballs is really an American adaption of the immigrant cookery described above.
There is, however, the Polpette Italiane Giganti (Giant Italian Meatball), the recipe for which I found in an Italian cookbook originally published in 1968: The New Complete Book of Pasta. You will observe that it’s really an Italian variant of that good old American staple, meatloaf. But cooked and served in the Italian manner, it’s truly something special, even as a Sunday dinner.
The Italians seldom serve pasta as the main course of a meal; usually, a moderate serving comes to the table as the first course. The following recipe and meal plan observes that protocol.
SUNDAY DINNER NUMBER TWO
First Course: Linguine Al Ragù (Linguine with Meat Sauce)
Main Course: Polpette Italiane Giganti (Giant Italian Meatball); Ceasar Salad
This is another dinner that’s easy on the cook. The sauce and meatball are cooked together in the oven, an hour-and-a-half sojourn that wonderfully enhances both components. The sauce can be prepared well ahead, to be refrigerated or frozen until needed. Once the meatball is constructed, it’s browned all over in olive oil and put into a covered pot with the sauce. Then it goes into the oven.
Preparing the Sauce
This recipe is for a basic Italian tomato sauce, suitable for any dish that calls for a tomato-based sauce. Ideally it should be made with fresh, ripe tomatoes, but canned Italian plum tomatoes are excellent and may be substituted. Just make sure that they’re imported from Italy; “Italian-style” canned tomatoes aren’t as good.
2 cans (28 oz. each) whole Italian plum tomatoes
1 large garlic clove, peeled and cut into three pieces
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Dump the tomatoes into a large bowl and crush them by hand. Do this carefully, for if you squeeze too hard, juice will spurt. It’s advisable to use your hands because a few tough stem ends are always present and that’s the best way to find and remove them.
In a large skillet with high sides, heat the olive oil over moderately high heat. When it’s shimmering, put in the garlic, swishing it around with a wooden spoon until it begins to brown. Then flatten the garlic pieces and swirl them around for two or three more minutes. Remove the garlic and discard it.
Pour the crushed tomatoes into the skillet, add the basil, salt and pepper, and stir until the sauce begins to bubble, about five minutes. Then lower the heat so that the sauce is gently simmering. Let it simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until it reduces slightly, about thirty minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if you think it’s necessary. Remove from heat. If you’re making the sauce a day or two in advance, let it cool, then refrigerate it. If made farther in advance, it should be frozen.
Constructing the Giant Italian Meatball
3 lbs. ground chuck (85% lean)
1 medium white onion, chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 whole eggs, beaten
2 cups plain bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
½ cup freshly grated Asiago cheese
2 teaspoons salt
much freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350°.
Over medium heat, sauté the onion in one tablespoon of the olive oil until soft and yellow but not browned. Spread another tablespoon of the olive oil on a large baking sheet, put the ground beef on it, and work with your hands until the meat is soft and flexible. Then add the eggs, bread crumbs, parsley and cheese, and work with your hands until well incorporated. Finally, work in the onions, salt and pepper. Form the meat into a solid ball.
Reserve a cup of the sauce and put the rest in a large pot over low heat. In a large skillet, heat the remaining olive oil. When it’s shimmering, put in the meatball and brown it all over, about five minutes. It’s best to do this by hand, wearing clean, heat-resistant cooking gloves. When it’s browned, transfer the meatball from the skillet to the pot. Baste it with some of the reserved sauce, cover the pot, and put it in the preheated oven.
Allow 1 ½ hours cooking time, basting the meatball two or three times with some reserved sauce. At the hour mark, check the meatball with an instant meat thermometer. It’s done when the thermometer registers an internal temperature of 165°. You can leave the pot in the turned-off oven with the door ajar while you organize the rest of the meal. When the time comes to remove the meatball from the pot, do so by hand, again wearing cooking gloves.
Serving Dinner
A drink before dinner whets the appetite, and for this dinner a classic Italian cocktail, the Negroni, would be perfect. The basic recipe is simple: per drink 1 oz. each of gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari, combined in a cocktail shaker but stirred, not shaken, until well chilled. Fill a rocks glass with ice and strain the cocktail into it. Garnish with a small slice of orange or just a twist of orange peel.
Serve dinner in the Italian manner. The linguini, topped with a generous dollop of sauce, arrives first, accompanied only by more grated Asiago cheese—in Italy, pasta and bread are not eaten together. Then the sliced meatball comes to the table on a platter with more sauce, salad, and bread. I suggest Ceasar salad, which isn’t Italian, but goes well. Along with the bread you can offer olive oil with mixed herbs or butter. Any full-bodied red wine goes well with this dinner, but a Chianti or Chianti Classico would be my first choice.
For dessert, the obvious options are biscotti or cannoli, accompanied by a fortified wine like Marsala Superiore (the Italian option) or tawny port.
Note on Leftovers
Leftover meatball slices and sauce can be used to make meatball sandwiches that are much less messy to eat than the usual American version. Or a good slice of the meatball can be cut into bite-sized chunks and added to any leftover sauce to make a nice ragù for a weeknight supper.
As a cook, I stand on the shoulders of giants. Thank you, Maria Lousia Scott and Jack Denton Scott, authors of The New Complete Book of Pasta, for the Giant Italian Meatball.
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