...but that's a really weird way to prepare Italian food. (This week's Wordless Wednesday prompt was provided by Kim Tracy Prince and the Beastie Boys.)
 |
| Eataly, New York City, May 2011 |
Se afișează postările cu eticheta food. Afișați toate postările
Se afișează postările cu eticheta food. Afișați toate postările
miercuri, 26 februarie 2014
sâmbătă, 25 ianuarie 2014
Even though we don't seem to be having much of a winter here in Southern California this year, it still feels like it should be soup season, and this soup is perfect for cooking on the weekend.
I grew up with an Italian interpretation of meatballs, served with macaroni and a red sauce (often on Sundays at my great-aunts' apartment). The homemade meatballs in my husband's family kitchen were served in the Mexican soup called Albondigas. His Mexican grandmother taught his non-Mexican mother her recipe, and his mother passed it on to me. And I lost it. But I've adapted a version from Simply Recipes to suit our tastes...and here's where you'll find the original version, which may better suit yours.
(Note: I did not have to change anything to make this gluten-free.)
INGREDIENTS
- 2 Tbsp olive oil (I use 1 tbsp each olive & grapeseed oil)
- 1-1/2 Tbsp dried/minced onion (or 1 large onion, chopped)
- 1/2 tsp dried/minced garlic (or 1 large clove fresh garlic, chopped)
- 2 quarts of chicken stock or beef stock OR water OR a mixture of both the original recipe calls for 3 quarts liquid, but we prefer a thicker soup--AND we leave out vegetables. I recommend using 3 quarts if including veggies--see suggestions below.
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1/3 cup raw white rice
- 1-1/4 pound ground turkey (standard package)
- 1 tsp dried basil leaves
- 1-1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
- 1 raw egg
- 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
PREPARATION
- Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed pot (5-qt) over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Add broth mixture and tomato sauce. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add carrots and string beans.
- Prepare the meatballs. Mix rice into meat, adding basil and parsley, salt and pepper. Mix in raw egg. Form mixture into 1-inch meatballs.
- Add the meatballs to the simmering soup, one at a time. Cover and let simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Serve with warmed soft tortillas (use corn tortillas for a gluten-free meal--otherwise, any type of flour tortillas are fine)
Yield: Serves 6-8.
This soup can be made 1-3 days in advance of when you plan to serve it, and it's actually more flavorful if you do. Allow to cool before refrigerating--if you have shelf space, put the pot directly into the refrigerator, and transfer back to the stove for reheating when ready to eat.
VEGETABLE ADDITIONS
Add these after the soup has boiled, but before the meatballs go in--
- 1/2 lb of string beans, strings and ends removed, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1 large or 2 small zucchini, diced
- 1-1/2 cup of frozen or fresh peas
marți, 24 decembrie 2013
Posted with Blogsymiercuri, 27 noiembrie 2013
sâmbătă, 23 noiembrie 2013
I made a batch of family-recipe marinara sauce last weekend. The specifics of our recipe tend to vary--every cook in every generation of my mom’s family has tweaked it, and no one measures anything--but the constants are just that: canned tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, onion, and basil leaves. (We don’t use pepper, but you can add it at the table if you like.)
This red sauce--Italian gravy--is the fragrance of Sunday dinners at my great-aunts’ apartment in Co-op City in the Bronx. We could smell it as we got off the elevator and started down the gray-tiled, echoey hallway to their door. We took off our shoes when we walked in, and left them next to the green loveseat in the foyer. My sister Teresa and I went into the living room. We’d give the playground, twelve floors below, longing looks through the big windows as we read or played on the plastic-covered furniture, waiting for dinnertime, which usually began around 2 in the afternoon.
We called it “macaroni” back then, in our family. We crowded around the kitchen table as it was spooned into shallow bowls, and topped with meatballs, grated Parmesan cheese and the gravy. Teresa and I would eat our macaroni, and then we’d ask to be excused. If the house was especially full that day, we might have to slide out of our chairs and crawl under the table to leave the kitchen and return to our play. Sometimes we might ask to watch TV. Sometimes we’d ask why we couldn’t take the plastic covers off the sofa.
At home, macaroni and meatballs was an evening meal. On Sundays at Aunt Millie and Aunt Mary’s, it was the first course. The grown-ups stayed at the table for baked chicken with potatoes, and salad and bread. Then there would be some time for clean-up and conversation before coffee and cake--dessert was always “coffee and cake.”
Sunday dinners in that apartment are central to my childhood memories, and the smell of good red sauce means home. Whenever I’ve moved as an adult, I haven’t felt like I’ve truly claimed the kitchen until I’ve cooked my first batch of red sauce there. It took me three months to do that in our new house, but I guess that means that after last weekend, it truly is home.
Abonați-vă la:
Postări (Atom)
