Pork

Monster Meatballs with Basil Marinara Sauce

April 11, 2011 By Steve Dunn 26 Comments

Peyton and I rolled a bunch of these meat bombs the other night, inspired by a bag of basil marinara sauce I found in the bottom of our freezer (I know what you’re thinking…enough with the freezer food already!) I’m starting to get concerned that the thing is bottomless.

The last time we crafted meatballs, we whipped up some chevre stuffed lamb beauties, but this time were in the mood for something a bit more traditional. I didn’t have a recipe handy, but recalled seeing a gorgeous looking meatball recently on my friend Rose’s great blog, The Bite Me Kitchen, so we went there for a look see.

What immediately struck me about Rose’s post was the photo of her large, solitary meatball, nestled into a deep pool of marinara, and topped with melting burrata cheese. I love the impact of serving one huge ball, rather than a few smaller ones, and the topping of melted cheese (we used a fresh mozzarella as we couldn’t find any burrata), makes for a very dramatic and tasty dish.

Making the balls takes just a few minutes, then a combination of cooking techniques; a quick bake, then a longer braise, renders the meatballs nicely browned, perfectly tender, and absolutely delicious. Serve these with Rose’s marinara, the one detailed below, or your favorite from scratch recipe.

Peyton and I used my kitchen scale to measure out six of these monsters to ensure no one cried foul, or felt ripped off by getting a ball any smaller than everyone else at the table….you must be careful about these things, you know. The marinara we used was leftover from the braciole we made earlier in the season.

Enjoy! – Steve

Monster Meatballs with Basil Marinara Sauce

by: Rose at "The Bite Me Kitchen" and Cucina Alessa (a So. Cal Restaurant)

notes: For the recipe we used to make our Basil Marinara

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

2/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 large egg
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 hot Italian sausages, casings removed
1 lb ground veal or ground pork

Instructions

Mix crumbs and milk in medium bowl; let stand 5 minutes.
Mix in Parmesan, onion, basil, egg, garlic and pepper. Add sausage, ground meat, and blend well.
Using wet hands, form the mixture into 3-inch balls. Place on baking sheet (freeze balls on parchment lined sheet that you're not eating, then transfer to ziplock bag).
Bake until meatballs are light brown and cooked through, about 30 minutes, turning once.
Add to sauce. Simmer, covered, 1 hr until tender, spooning sauce over and turning occasionally.
Just before serving, top with burrata, fresh mozzarella or parmesan and cover the pan for a few minutes to let the cheese melt.
Serve in shallow bowls or over pasta for a more filling meal.

Cumin Spiced Pork Chops with Ginger-Pineapple Relish

April 1, 2011 By Steve Dunn 18 Comments

In case you hadn’t yet noticed, I LOVE PORK. I can’t think of a beast more giving (in a culinary sense), than our friend the noble pig. From the belly, to the hock, the loin, the shoulder, and the jowl, the pig offers so many tasty cuts of meat, that can be cooked in such a wide variety of ways, that the sky’s the limit as to what you can create with a little imagination. That said, and I hope I don’t disappoint too many of you nose-to-tail folks out there, while there are those who will eat just about anything that can be gleaned from a pig, I do have my limits.

Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya

March 25, 2011 By Steve Dunn 11 Comments

This was a dish we pulled together a few weeks ago to feed a large gang heading North with us for one of our last ski weekends of the season. It was a great prep ahead dish that Boris helped me with the day before we traveled. He’s my go-to guy for prep that requires lots of knife work, as he is always looking to hone his skills in this area. By dicing and chopping all of our chicken, veggies and pork products in advance, all that was required after our full day of skiing was a quick saute of our prepped meats and veggies, the addition of some stock, rice and spices, and then popping the whole lovely concoction into the oven to bake.

Braised Sausages with Balsamic Glazed Grapes and Onions

March 3, 2011 By Steve Dunn 22 Comments

While I’m pretty good about cleaning up after myself when cooking at a leisurely (weekend) pace, I’ve been known to leave quite the debris field in my wake when slamming to get a weeknight meal on the table for the family. And so, my wife loves it when I make a one pot meal on a weeknight, especially one that is as tasty as this one. You see, while we have a rotating schedule of kitchen duties that gives everyone a chance to be a sous-chef, table cleaner, pot washer, or drier, it seems that my wife more often than not swaps duties with one of the kids and finds herself up to her elbows in soap suds cleaning up the mess I’ve left in the kitchen.

Sorry, honey.

Braised Pork Shoulder with Fennel and Orange

February 23, 2011 By Steve Dunn 13 Comments

This is a dish that we whipped up a few weeks back in advance of a ski trip with my brother and his family. We were looking for something that could be completely cooked in advance, so that after a long day on the slopes we’d have little more to do than throw the pot into the oven to reheat while we sat by the fire, enjoyed a glass of wine, and stretched our sore muscles.

My sister-in-law doesn’t eat red meat, so the beef bourguignon or short ribs I had in the freezer were off-limits….thank goodness for our friend, the noble pig. This dish is incredibly easy to make, wildly flavorful, and satisfied everyone at the table that night, served with some gingered sweet potatoes and a simple green salad.

Curried Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Maple-Ginger Sweet Potatoes and Apples

February 18, 2011 By Steve Dunn 17 Comments

Jessica Goldman, the lovely food writer who brings us the delicious and informative blog, Sodium Girl, tweeted me last week and asked me to join her, and a number of other bloggers in what she is calling her “Love Your Heart Recipe Rally”. For the event, she is asking participating bloggers to rework a favorite “sodium heavy” recipe into one that would be considered “sodium-free” (or at least “sodium-light”), then blog about the dish, posting on Friday, February 18th….yes, that would be today.

The rules of engagement were pretty straight forward, we had to identify our original recipe’s salty ingredients, eliminate them, and recreate the recipe with as little sodium as possible – i.e. no salt (duh), no salted butter (ouch), and no products that contain sodium content higher than 40mg per serving – or “very low sodium” according to the American Heart Association.

A very cool idea, I thought.

That was, until I told my wife about the invitation, then had to endure the humiliation of watching her double-over in laughter at the mere thought of my cooking a low-sodium meal.

Ming Tsai’s Pork Tenderloin with Five Spice Apples

January 14, 2011 By Steve Dunn 15 Comments

This is the first Ming Tsai recipe I ever cooked, and it remains my favorite.

Why? Three reasons.

First, it is absolutely delicious and requires no hard-to-come-by ingredients. Second, with the exception of the brining which takes a little advance planning, the meal is very quick to put together. Third, with just a little extra effort it can be quite gorgeous on the plate. For a weeknight family meal, a dollop of the pureed potatoes, a couple of slices of pork, and a spoonful of apples and you are good to go (don’t feel like making the apples, put a little Chinese Five Spice Powder into your favorite applesauce, and you’ll have an easy substitute). For a dinner party or special occasion, plate it as I have in the photo above, and its a real stunner.

Maiale al Latte – Pork Cooked in Milk

October 25, 2010 By Steve Dunn 23 Comments

This is a very traditional Italian dish that we cooked up the other night to rave reviews. It is very quickly getting colder here in the Northeast, and we are wasting no time cooking up some of our favorite, and discovering some great new, braises.

I’ll be honest with you, as much as I love the light, fresh foods of summer, and being able to harvest part of our evening meal from our very own garden, I am more than ready for the low and slow comfort foods of fall. This recipe is from Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray’s Italian Country Cook Book: The River Cafe. Rogers and Gray are the chefs behind the highly regarded “River Cafe” in London, the place where Jaime Oliver was working when he was “discovered”. Their approach to food and cooking is very straightforward. Do as little as possible to the best ingredients you can find, respect tradition and don’t overcomplicate things…..Amen.

Pork Tenderloin with Honey Mustard Sauce

July 8, 2010 By Steve Dunn 16 Comments

When people first learn that I trained professionally to be a chef, their eyes go wide and they look at me and say, “you must know how to make awesome sauces!”.

Sauce creation seems to be the one thing people hone-in on when distinguishing home cooking from restaurant cuisine. If you listen to people recounting their most memorable restaurant meals, they inevitably include a description of a fabulous sauce, either with the main course or dessert. A good sauce also happens to be the element of the meal that most home chefs think is beyond their grasp. Not so.

Cider Brined Pork with Calvados, Mustard and Thyme

November 27, 2009 By Steve Dunn 4 Comments

This dish is an easy mid-week meal, and was inspired by a treat we had while traveling through Brittany a few years ago. The sugar from the cider brine causes a deliciously sweet caramelized crust on the chops, and the brining process renders the inside of the meat perfectly seasoned and moist. I like the dish with a nice thick chop, but it would also work well with a cutlet, or pork tenderloin. The bite of the mustard, the sweetness of the cider, and the silkiness of the cream make for a well rounded sauce to complement the meat.

Boris helped me in the kitchen for this meal, though to be honest, most of his work this night was in prepping a special appetizer for his brother Gridley, who had requested Nobu Matsuhisa’s “Shrimp Tempura with Creamy Spicy Sauce” as a special 17th birthday treat. Details of that fabulous dish, and Boris’ excellent spicy mayonnaise will follow in a later post.

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Pork

Monster Meatballs with Basil Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

Instructions

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