Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

It's been almost 2 years since I've logged in and written a new blog post.  I guess you could say I've been a little busy over the last 2 years.  Since then I finished culinary school (almost), spent weeks of my pregnancy on bed rest with no access to a kitchen, gave birth to the most amazing twins, Henry and Hope, and moved into a new house.  I now have to time my cooking around naps and what I can get done while trying to keep two toddlers from climbing onto the table and trying to reach in the oven.  I decided it was finally time to dust off the old blog and start posting a few recipes again.

I set out to make meatball subs yesterday with fresh homemade bread, fire roasted tomato sauce, and delicious cheesy meatballs.  And as often happens in the kitchen, disaster struck.  My bread that I spent all day making turned out hard as a rock.  Since my love affair with carbs is equally split between bread and pasta, I rolled with the punches and made some pasta to accompany my meatballs and sauce.

I started my day making sauce.  I refuse to buy pre-made sauce anymore because its so easy to make it from scratch and this way I know exactly what is in it.

I just have to say that I absolutely love cooking on a gas stove.  When we first moved into this house there was an electric stove and I hated it.  I was never so happy as the night when our entire from scratch dinner was ruined because that oven wasn't working right and we got to go shopping for a new gas stove.  Now that I am cooking with gas again I can do this first step of roasting my red pepper.

If you don't have a gas stove you can roast your pepper in the oven.  Once your pepper is good and charred, put it in a bowl and cover with plastic so it can steam and is easier to peel all the black off later on.

While the pepper is steaming I started on the roasted tomatoes and onions.  Preheat your oven to 375 and slice your tomatoes in half and your onion into about 1/4" slices.  The size doesn't really matter because it's all going to get blended up later.  Put all your veggies on a sheet pan and sprinkle with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.  I didn't measure here, just use enough to coat them lightly.

Bake the tomatoes and onions for 25-30 minutes, until the onions are soft.  While they are baking, peel all the black skin off of the red pepper, remove the stem and seeds and roughly chop.

Look at that roasted deliciousness!  You could always just cook all your veggies in the pot, but there is so much more flavor when they are roasted first.  

Now it's time to get out your favorite pot, and assemble the rest of the ingredients for your sauce.

Throw all your veggies (make sure you get all the juices from the pan), tomato products, spices, and vinegar in the pot.  I like my sauce tangy so I use quite a bit of balsamic vinegar but you can totally cut back or omit the vinegar if you want.

Mix it all up and let it simmer over low heat for about an hour.  Then it's time to bring out one of my favorite kitchen tools, the immersion blender.  If you don't have one I highly suggest it.  You can get one for about $30 and they can be used for all kinds of stuff.  I have a Cuisinart one that came with a little food processor type bowl attachment and I use it often for little kitchen projects.  

Blend up all that yummy roasted goodness until its nice and smooth.  You can use a regular blender, just be careful blending a hot sauce.  Now the most important thing to do when cooking is to taste your food.  So be sure to taste your sauce and adjust the seasoning until it's perfect to you.

When I go through the trouble of making sauce I always make a big batch.  I had enough for dinner and to fill two bags to freeze for later meals.  If you are like me, freezer space is hard to come by so make sure you freeze your bags flat so you can easily stack them.  I took advantage of the sub-zero Midwest temperatures and throw them outside my door so they can freeze flat on the front step and then squeeze them into the freezer.

Once the sauce was complete I started in on the meatballs.  In a large bowl combine the beef, pork, grated onion, garlic, balsamic, parm, and spices.

The only way to really mix up meatballs is with your hands so get in there, get messy, and mix it all up until all the ingredients are equally distributed.  Once it's well mixed, start forming the meatballs. This is where I use another of my favorite kitchen tools, portion scoops.  I love for things to be even and symmetrical so whenever I need to portion things out like cookies, cupcakes, and meatballs, I use my Pampered Chef scoops.  If you don't have any of these scoops I highly suggest getting a few.  They are pretty inexpensive and can be used for all kinds of kitchen tasks.  I try not to invest in a tool unless I can use it for multiple things.  

Scoop them all out and then roll them lightly to make sure they won't fall apart when you are cooking them.  If the meat sticks to your hands when you are rolling them, just get your hands wet and it won't stick anymore.

Once your meatballs are made you can start frying them (you can bake them too but I had the rock hard bread disaster in my oven at the time).  Lightly coat the bottom of your biggest frying pan with olive oil and make sure it's hot.  You want your meatballs to sear and get that lovely brown crust on the outside.

Be sure you don't overcrowd your pan or they will never sear and you'll end up with that nasty grey looking meat.  I had a 12" skillet and had to cook my meatballs in two batches.  Cook them for a couple minutes per side.  You want them nice and brown on the outside but they don't need to be cooked all the way through at this point.  Remove the meatballs from the pan and discard all the oil from the bottom of the pan.  Reduce your heat to low and add all the meatballs and cover with about 2-3 cups of the sauce.

Let this deliciousness simmer away for 20-30 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through.  At this point you can serve them up on a sub bun and top with cheese or over your favorite pasta.  I cooked up some corkscrew pasta because the kiddos like it and any pasta with a texture on the outside will hold the sauce better.

Of course I topped mine with some shaved parmesan, because what good is pasta without cheese on top.

Although it wasn't how I intended my dinner to turn out, it was delicious.  Sometimes kitchen disasters happen.  Sometimes recipes don't work.  As long as you can roll with the punches in the kitchen everything will turn out just fine in the end.

Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce
1 red pepper
3 cups cherry tomatoes (any type of tomato would work, this is just what I had on hand)
1 red onion
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1 large can crushed or diced tomatoes
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp italian herbs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 375.  Roast, peel, and coarsely chop the red pepper.  Slice the tomatoes in half and the onion into about 1/4" slices.  Place on a sheet pan and lightly coat with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.  Toss the veggies so they are evenly coated and bake 25-30 minutes until the onions are softened.

Place all the ingredients in a large pot and stir to combine.  Simmer over low heat for at least one hour, stirring occasionally.  Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce until smooth.  Taste and adjust the seasonings accordingly.  Reserve 2-3 cups and freeze the rest for future use.

Cheesy Meatballs
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp italian herbs
1/3 cup parmesan
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Use a small grater or microplane to grate the onion, garlic, and parm into a large bowl.  Add all the remaining ingredients and mix until well combined.  Shape into golf ball sized balls.  At this point you can cook to use now or freeze to use later.  Lightly coat a large skillet with olive oil and fry the meatballs over medium high to high heat, about two minutes per side to get a nice brown crust on the outside.  If you are making all the meatballs, you will need to fry in at least 2 batches so you don't overcrowd the pan.  Once they are all seared, drain the oil from the pan and return all the meatballs to the pan.  Cover with sauce and simmer 20-30 minutes until they are cooked through.