crucible of ennui

As promised - here is the recipe for the Napolitano family meatballs. I usually take a day off and get Christina to do the same and we get 10 times the amount to make a buttload at one time. Then we freeze them and have them as needed. BTW - Christina is a massive wuss and doesn’t like the feeling of meat under her nails. Call the waaaah-bulance.

1 lb Ground beef (30%)
1/4 lb Ground pork
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parm. cheese
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/8 pepper
1 tbsp parsley

Let the eggs, milk and meat stand out for a bit to warm up. If you’re working with huge amounts of meat - it gets pretty freaking cold mixing everything by hand. Combine the beef, pork, milk, eggs & garlic. Use your hands to mix this up really, really well. In a different bowl mix the dry stuff together and slowly add them to the squishy meaty-milky-eggy stuff. Get to mixin’ with your hands (f’n Christina always leaves this part to me).

Okay - time to make them balls. Decide on what size you want. I make mine like an inch and a half in diameter. In a hot skillet - olive oil and then brown them on all sides. Mmmm - the broken ones can be eaten right away because they’re disfigured and would be made fun of by the rest of the whole meatballs.

Lasagna filling.

Anyone who uses cottage cheese is just wrong. If you even think of replacing the ricotta cheese with cottage cheese, don’t ever let me know as I will think really bad things about you for the rest of my life. This is enough for one pan.

1 lb ricotta cheese
1 cup grated parm. cheese
1 lb mozzarella cheese - grated
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp oregano

That’s it. Simple recipe. If you’d like something visually stunning - under the top most layer of noodles, place some thinly sliced mozzarella cheese so when you cut it and pull the piece away ooey-gooey strings of cheese will impress everyone you’re serving.

Every once in a while I’ll cut up some Italian sausage and saute it in red wine then layer that between the filling and noodles.

Again - why am I sharing this. Because I care. And because I keep losing the recipe.