Last week the Meatball King of New Jersey, Johnny "Meatballs" vistied the Kettle Kitchen to teach us the secret to his famous Meatballs.
Between you, me and the blogosphere, the secret is: carmelized onions.
I didn't grow up with caramelized onions in my meatballs, but after enjoying a couple, it's a pretty good idea.
If you're in the mood for some meatballs, you could pick up a six pack of Johnny's Meatballs in Sunday Gravy at Corrado's. Or, if you'd like to make them yourself, watch the video to see how Johnny does it and follow the recipe below. Salute!
Enjoy the video:
Part Two:
Here's Johnny's recipe:
JOHNNY’S MEATBALLS IN SUNDAY GRAVY
1. Sauté an onion
Every Sunday, I make thirteen meatballs out of about a pound and a half of meat (a dozen and then one extra to make it thriteen, which is actually a lucky number for us Italians). So first things first, I caramelize an onion—which is what makes my meatballs so special! Dice and then lightly sauté it in a pan of olive oil and butter for about twenty-five minutes. After the first five minutes, sprinkle some sugar and salt on top, give a nice stir and cover the pan. Let it get nice and golden brown and then turn off the flame.
2. Start mixing
In a large bowl, combine your meatball mix which is veal, pork and beef (the “Trinity”), along with three eggs, ½ cup of breadcrumbs, ½ cup of grated cheese, a splash of heavy cream and about two tablespoons of minced garlic. Then, I add in three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a nice handful of chopped fresh basil leaves (“basi-nee-gole”), two tablespoons of tomato paste, the onion (when it’s fully cooled off) and my “Special 10-Spice Blend” (sea salt, cracked pepper, parsley, oregano, red chili flakes and five other carefully selected spices.) Mix everything up—with your hands of course—and then roll the mix into balls!
3. Fry your balls
Drizzle a hearty glug of olive oil into a pan. Fry the meatballs until they turn brown on both sides (cook about 80 percent through, they will finish in the gravy pot the rest of the way).
4. Meat infusion – making the gravy!
Drizzle a hearty glug of olive oil into a deep pot and once it’s hot, add in two packages of “gravy meat” and this is two sausage links—casings removed, two bracioles, two pieces of pork. Allow the meat to sit in the pot for about twenty minutes until slightly browned. Remove the meat and deglaze the pan by frying a little bit of tomato paste in the oil.
5.
Add your tomatoes!
Pour in one 14 oz. can of Italian style stewed tomatoes. Follow that by adding in two 28 oz. cans of New Jersey grown crushed tomatoes, a few spoonfuls of diced garlic, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, a splash of vino and a sprinkling of JM’s Spice Blend. Next, pour in two 28 oz. cans of San Marzano tomatoes. Repeat the garlic/balsamic/vino/spice blend steps here. I love the combination of the imported Italian, the California and the Jersey tomatoes. Finally, shove the meatballs and all the other meats back in at this point. Give a nice stir about every twenty minutes, cooking on a medium flame for a minimum of two hours. In the last five minutes, sprinkle some torn-up basil leaves on top and stir one last time before turning off the flame.
6.
Put the water on!
This is the most basic part, you boil up a pot of water, get it nice and salty and then you add in the macaroni of your choice (Star Ravioli are usually my choice). Get it to aldente, which is not too soft, not too hard. Then, what I do is I serve the macaroni with the gravy on top with a gravy boat on the side to add more on your own. Mangia!!! PS- Don’t forget the crusty bread and vino!!
Johnny “Meatballs” DeCarlo
This recipe, along with lots of other recipes and stories of growing up “Jersey Italian” will be in my upcoming book, “My Big Friggin’ Book” to be released on May 11th. You can preorder it now at:
http://www.michelepaiva.com/johnny-meatballs-decarlo.html
