July 29, 2024 • 20 mins
Who doesn't love meatballs? Well, maybe Mark, as you'll hear. But we're making meatballs even Mark will eat!
We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, the authors of three dozen cookbooks and tens of thousands of original recipes. We've been in the food business for almost twenty-five years. This is our podcast about our passions: food and cooking.
Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:
[00:32] Our one-minute cooking tip: Try roasting white chocolate for a deeper, more caramelized flavor.
[02:48] We’re making meatballs! Here's the recipe:
Start by soaking 1/2 cup or 45 grams FRESH bread crumbs in 1/4 cup or 60 milliliters milk (of any sort) for about 20 minutes in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl you'll use with an electric mixer.
Crumble in 1 pound or 450 grams lean ground beef, 1 pound or 450 grams sweet Italian sausage meat (no casings), 1 large egg, 2 tablespoons dried minced parsley, 2 teaspoons dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. Mix at low speed until well and evenly combined.
Clean and dry your hands, then oil them with olive oil. Form the meat mixture into 12 balls, each about the size of a golf ball.
Put them on a lipped baking sheet and roast in a 375F or 190C convection or fan-on oven until brown, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, finely chop 1 small yellow or white onion (peeled), 1 large cubanelle or Italian frying pepper (stemmed and seeded), and 2 medium garlic cloves (peeled).
Warm 3 tablespoons or 45 milliliters of olive oil in a Dutch oven set over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon chopped FRESH rosemary leaves, 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon anchovy paste. Stir until fragrant, then add the chopped vegetables. Cook, stirring often, until softened, about 3 minutes.
Add 1 pound or 450 grams sliced brown button or cremini mushrooms plus 1/2 teaspoon table salt. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms give off their moisture and evaporates to a glaze, about 5 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup or 120 milliliters of dry vermouth, dry white wine, dry sherry, or unsweetened apple juice. Scrape up all the brown bits, then pour in one 24 1/2-ounce or 700-gram jar of tomato passata, preferably the Mutti brand. Fill the jar of Mutti with water, swirl it around to get every speck of passata, and pour it into the pot as well.
Bring to a simmer, add the browned meatballs, and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally but very gently.
To finish off, add 12 torn-up FRESH basil leaves and lots of ground black pepper. Taste for salt and dish it up.
[17:53] What’s making us happy in food this week: Santa Rosa plums and ice cream.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bruce (00:01):
Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein and this is the podcast
cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Mark (00:04):
And I'm Mark Scarborough.
And together with Bruce, we havewritten over three dozen cookbooks.
This is our podcast about foodand cooking, our passions in life.
In this episode of the podcast, we'vegot a one minute cooking tip about,
of all things, white chocolate.
We're going to be making.
Meatballs during this episode.
And we'll tell you what's makingus happy in food this week.
(00:26):
So let's get started.
Bruce (00:32):
Our one minute cooking tip.
Want to be a pastry chef in your own home?
Try roasting white chocolate.
What, what, what isroasted white chocolate?
When you melt it in the ovenon a sheet pan, it caramelizes.
It takes about 40 minutes and the sugarscaramelize and it comes out a deep.
(00:53):
It's almost like making dulce deleche out of sweetened condensed milk.
Okay, so just back up.
So what do you do?
Take your white chocolate, whetherit's 6 ounces, 8 ounces, 12
ounces, 2 pounds, whatever it is.
Chop it up, put it on a baking tray.
Mark (01:07):
A lipped baking tray.
Sure.
And you know No, not sure.
No, not sure.
Bruce (01:13):
Okay, a lipped baking tray.
And you're going to place it inan oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
And you're going to stir itaround every 5 or 10 minutes.
It'll take about 40 minutes untilit's all golden and caramelized.
Then what I like to do isscrape it onto a piece of paper.
parchment, spread it out and let it cool.
Then you could break it up and eat it.
You could melt it again and use it fordesserts that call for melted chocolate.
(01:36):
You can pipe it onto things.
You could dip strawberries into it.
You can make ganache out of it.
It's a real.
big pastry chef.
Can you then, uh, cool it and breakit up and store it in your pantry?
You can, you can even mix nuts into thatand make a caramelized white chocolate
bark, which I think sounds really good.
Okay,
Mark (01:55):
well there you are, um, roasting white chocolate.
Before we get on to makingmeatballs in this podcast, let me
say that we do have a newsletter.
It comes out, I don't know, maybetwice a month, maybe once a month,
twice a month, something like that.
You can sign up for thatnewsletter on our website.
BruceAndMark.
com or CookingWithBruceAndMark.
(02:15):
com.
You can then get our newsletter, whichis unrelated mostly to this podcast.
And I should also say, if you goout to our website, BruceAndMark.
com or CookingWithBruceAndMark.
com, we started putting up recipes.
And we're currently on a jag of chocolatechip or chocolate cookies on Twitter.
tiktok videos and those recipesare going up even as we speak.
(02:38):
Check that out and find out freerecipe content on our website.
So up next, we're going to make meatballs.
Bruce (02:48):
Meatballs are like chicken soup.
Every cook makes their own version.
Everyone grows up thinking that theway their mother or grandmother made
them is the only way they should be
Mark (02:59):
eaten.
So, I have to make a confession.
And, um, if you don't know, if youhaven't listened to this podcast enough,
you don't know that I have an aversionto, uh, well, what we called loose meat
growing up, but that is ground beef.
Or, quote unquote, ground beef.
hamburger.
And if you know me, I eat hamburgers,but I eat them blood rare.
(03:20):
And mostly I don't like ground beef.
I know it's this thing.
And I really don't like meatloaf.
And I
Bruce (03:28):
don't get it.
I don't understand that meatloaf aversion.
I could tell you something.
Mark is going to go visit hismother in a week and I'm going
to be alone for four days.
I plan on making meatloaf.
Oh, good.
You
Mark (03:38):
eat it all up.
But here's the thing about,uh, and, uh, don't even get me
started on hamburger casseroles.
Oh, no, but that is loose meat.
That's
Bruce (03:48):
disgusting.
Mark (03:49):
Oh, God.
Oh, I grew up on that stuff.
Um, anyway, uh, I don't reallylike it, but here's the thing.
I like meatballs.
And it's a really weirdthing because mostly I don't
really care for ground beef.
But, uh, But I love meatballs and Ithink it has to do with the browning.
So we'll get
Bruce (04:05):
to that.
But what I have here is beef and sausage.
Now, we're going to start already.
People are going to say, no,meatballs have to have veal or beef.
They could be only beefor only beef and pork.
In our house, it's acombination of lean meat.
Ground beef and fattyItalian sweet sausage.
And how much?
(04:26):
I have a
Mark (04:26):
pound of each.
Okay, so a pound of each.
And also, we should say that we prefer,and this is a big controversy in the
food world, but we have fresh sausages.
breadcrumbs here.
So here's what happens.
Let me tell you way too much about ourlives as I'm staring at these breadcrumbs.
Uh, the, our dog gets acid reflux.
(04:47):
I know this is ridiculous totell you, but okay, here it is.
Our colleague gets acid reflux.
And so in order to stop that fromhappening every night before bed,
he gets half a piece of breadcrumbs.
toast.
Um, just literally whitewhipped sandwich bread toast.
He gets half a piece andthat helps calm it all down.
But we end up with a lot ofcrusts from all this white bread.
(05:08):
So we always have tons of crusts inthe freezer that Bruce can then grind
up into fresh, not dried breadcrumbs.
Yes, our dog likes us to cutthe crusts off his bread.
Don't, please don't write us about that.
So we have a half a cupof fresh breadcrumbs.
And by the way, you can lookfor fresh breadcrumbs at most
supermarkets at this point.
And we've got them ina quarter cup of milk.
(05:28):
It doesn't matter what kindof milk, whether it's low fat,
skim, or full fat, or all fat.
Oat or almond.
Just no
Bruce (05:35):
sweetened, gross.
And it's been sitting 20 minutes.
So that's nice and soft.
Now.
A lot of people I know were taughtthat you lift the bread out and
you gently squeeze the liquid out.
No, don't do that.
It's only a quarter cup and you wantthat moisture In to the meatballs.
And here's the thing, thosebreadcrumbs and milk have been
(05:55):
sitting in the bowl of my stand mixer.
And that's another thing thatI find is a fabulous tool.
So we'll talk about that aswe put this stuff in here.
What we're putting in here is
Mark (06:08):
that pound of ground beef and a pound of fatty, sweet Italian sausage,
and we're putting it in the stand mixerwith the milk and the breadcrumbs, and
then we're also adding a large egg.
Okay, so what do we need to
Bruce (06:19):
do before we mix?
We need to add our spices,and they're all in here.
Always the same.
I keep these the same becauseI want my meatballs to be
consistent every time I make them.
Two tablespoons dried minced parsley.
Dried parsley?
I love dried parsley in this.
Oh my god, what are you, my grandmother?
Yep.
Two teaspoons of oregano, ateaspoon of salt, and a half a
teaspoon each of grated nutmeg.
(06:41):
And a half a teaspoon of pepper.
Now, see, this is, uh,
Mark (06:44):
this is the difference between the chef and the writer.
He put dried oregano inthere, but he didn't say dried
oregano, so I'm gonna add it.
Dried oregano, but dried parsley?
Bruce (06:55):
Yeah, I love dried parsley.
Okay, I'm turning the mixeron, I'm letting this go now.
I love using the stand mixer forground beef, And it stems from my
experience making Chinese Dumplings,where you're supposed to only mix, maybe
you don't know this, but when you makeChinese dumplings, you're supposed to
mix the meat in one direction only.
(07:15):
What?
What?
What?
And you keep stirring.
No, it's true.
Only in one direction
Mark (07:19):
until My physics brain is speaking loudly right now, and I don't
have much of a physics brain left.
And you do that But it's speaking
Bruce (07:26):
loudly.
Until the meat mixture starts todevelop little stringy bits, and they're
kind of all going in one direction.
And then You want it to bepasty with stringy bits.
Look, that's what I learned.
I learned it from the internet.
And it's true.
I
Mark (07:40):
learned it from the
Bruce (07:42):
internet.
Actually, okay, let's go.
I'm gonna turn this off.
We're gonna look at this.
You got The stringy stuff'shappening with the meme.
Did you learn
Mark (07:49):
this part from the internet, too?
Mmm, yeah.
And now,
Bruce (07:54):
the fun part.
Mark (07:54):
I learned it.
I'm not over.
I learned it from the internet.
A.
How old are you?
I mean, really, honestly.
Very.
Very.
Yes, you deserve to be on Facebook.
And two.
Holy crap, don't we know that theinternet is a cesspool of misinformation?
We're on the internet.
Well, yeah, and, uh, we are.
Bruce (08:17):
We're
Mark (08:17):
part
Bruce (08:17):
of the cesspool.
So, I have now oiled up my handswith olive oil and I am forming
like golf ball sized balls, right?
And I am rubbing them withoil and making them smooth.
And I am putting them on a roasting pan.
And Mark has turned the oven on for me.
What'd you turn it
Mark (08:36):
on to?
To 375.
And it's on convection because wewant as much browning as possible.
And while we're doing this, and whilehe's making these, I just want to say that
what I find so funny is that my New YorkCity husband knows what a golf ball is.
This just tells you how long we'velived in the country with country clubs.
Bruce (08:53):
I grew up.
In New York City, going tominiature golf, putt putt.
So I knew about golf balls, they werepink and green and blue and yellow.
And you had to get them throughthe clown's nose and all of that.
So I
Mark (09:06):
knew all about golf balls.
So did you go to the putt putt that hadthe Our Lady of the Bathtub like I did?
No,
Bruce (09:14):
this was Jewish putt putt.
Jewish putt putt?
Yeah, it was like, you had toget it through the menorah.
Oh.
That is absurd.
But it was right across thestreet from the best diner that
ever existed in Queens, New York.
Yeah, I'm not
Mark (09:28):
talking anymore to you because you're talking about Jewish putt putt.
The Seville, you've been to that diner.
I have.
You have.
Um, okay, so what I'm gonna do is, uh,get away from Jewish putt putt because
it's just the, there's too much antiSemitism waiting to happen right there.
Okay.
I'm gonna talk about what I'm doing, whichis I am chopping a small yellow onion.
And I have one of those green.
(09:52):
You can also use a small greenbell pepper if you want, but, um, a
cubanelle or italian frying pepper,I've stemmed it, I'm cutting it away,
and I'm chopping it, and I'm gonnaalso chop up two cloves of garlic.
Bruce (10:04):
And while you're doing that, I have put a flame under my pot, and I've put
in three tablespoons of olive oil, and tothat, this is the way I like to do things.
I'm adding a tablespoonof chopped fresh rosemary.
Oh, suddenly it's fresh.
We
Mark (10:18):
don't have to use the dried stuff
Bruce (10:19):
anymore.
One and a half teaspoons of fennelseeds, a teaspoon of chili flakes,
and a teaspoon of anchovy paste.
And I put those aromaticsand spices into the oil.
And they fry up and they getvery flavorful and delicious,
but I don't want to burn them.
And then we're going to throw all thoseveggies that Mark chipped up into the pan.
Mark (10:40):
Right.
And so all this goes in the pan.
And if you're worried about anchovypaste and you think, Gross, I
don't want that in meatballs.
Trust me, it just cooks downand becomes this wildly Savory
background taste in everything.
It makes it so much more delicious.
So we're going to step away fromthis for a moment and let it reduce
Bruce (10:59):
and come back.
The onions and peppers areall browned on the edges.
Everything is wilted down.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
So we're reducing the heatand we're adding one pound
of sliced cremini mushrooms.
That is brown button mushroomsor baby portobello mushrooms.
(11:20):
And here's a trick.
Now is the time to add salt.
A half a teaspoon will help drawthe moisture out of these mushrooms
and that moisture will evaporate.
I want the mushrooms to reduce andbrown just like the onions did.
About five minutes.
We got to come back to that.
So wait, before we do that, wait,
Mark (11:36):
wait,
Bruce (11:37):
wait.
I think
Mark (11:37):
that this is a really important thing.
Um, you do have to let mushroomssweat and you have to let that
liquid come out and then reduce down.
Otherwise you can havea really watery sauce.
Mushrooms are So loadedwith water and moisture.
You really need to let that come out.
And plus that also, as it reduces,adds a ton of flavor to the sauce.
(11:57):
So, okay, we're going tocut away and come back.
Now it's time to deglaze the pan.
So we have about a halfa cup of dry vermouth.
You could also use unsweetened applejuice if you don't want any liquor.
If you want to get fancy, youcan use dry white wine, use
dry cherry, use more salad.
You can use masala, you can get really as
Bruce (12:19):
fancy as you want.
Just don't open up the a hundreddollars bottle of Barolo.
Mark (12:23):
Don't, no, do not deglaze with that.
And don't deglaze with bourbon.
Or if you don't wannaburn your house down.
So you pour that in, scrapeand you scrape everything up.
And now it comes.
The big thing, the jar of
Bruce (12:35):
Moody tomato sata, which is a tomato puree from Italy.
We have talked about Moody before.
It's been one of the thingsmaking us happy in food this week.
Ever since I discoveredMutti, it is all I use.
In fact, this summer, it is just aboutgetting tomato time, and I don't even
think I'm going to put up my own tomatoesthis year, because there's Mutti.
(12:55):
And while I thought Mutti passata wasthe best thing I ever found, I found
a level of Mutti that's even better.
It's this Toscana Mutti.
It gives the name of the farmwhere the tomatoes are from.
It gives the varietal of tomatoes.
If you could find Mootie and youcan find this Toscana mootie, use
it that's been poured in and I'm notwasting a drop of it It's very thick.
(13:19):
So I'm rinsing the jar outwith some water and pouring
Mark (13:22):
that in Okay, and that really honestly is the bid and so now what
we're gonna do is we're gonna take thoseMeatballs, they have browned in the
oven for how long they've been in thereabout 15 minutes And we're gonna take
them out of the oven and we're gonna putthem in this sauce and cover it reduce
the heat to low And let it simmer forone hour long time It's gonna simmer
(13:45):
some of that brownie coating on themeatballs is gonna come off into the
sauce It's all gonna get much richard.
You want this at a really slow?
Simmer not too much.
It
Bruce (13:57):
always amazes me when people throw meatballs right into a sauce
like this without browning them.
I don't understand thatyou just boiling them.
They've got to be browned.
If you don't want to brown them in theoven, I sure you could brown them in
another skillet if you want, but thattakes such a mess and so much time.
I have even in my lifedone them in the air fryer.
Mark (14:15):
If you, if you don't brown your meatballs, um, just to be
gross, you end up with meat pudding.
You end up with this like really.
Soft meat pudding balls.
Oh, I just, gross.
Soft meat pudding balls.
Oh, my.
Okay, so this is going to goabout an hour, and we will be
back to taste it and dish it up.
Bruce (14:36):
It smells so good in here.
The tomatoes have reduced a bit.
The sauce is thick, but not too thick.
And the last thing I want to do before weeat it is tear up some fresh basil leaves.
I have like 12 basil leaves here, andI'm going to Put those in, stir them in.
I want that fresh basilflavor when we eat these.
We're going to ladle this up.
(14:57):
These are hot, so we're gonnahave to like do something Mark
hates, which is blow on your food.
No,
Mark (15:02):
I'm not blowing on it.
I'm just waiting.
So what you do is you dish it up, youcoat it, you put as much grated Parmesan
cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano, please,into the bowl, and then I add a ton.
of cracked black pepper, and Icontinue to salt because salt
is my, my weakness in life.
Bruce (15:24):
Yeah, I think to me that the cheese is going to add enough salt to this.
No, not nearly enough.
I am, I'm going to blow onthis because I want to try it.
Oh, this is so hot.
Savory.
It's hot.
It's hot, but it's hot.
It's delicious.
It's so savory.
Wow.
The problem with tomato sauces for meis sometimes they could be too sweet.
Yes.
And the is not we.
(15:45):
The moti is not sweet.
We didn't add any sugar.
Yes.
Onions are sweet and evenmushrooms have a sweetness to them.
And we use sweet sausage.
Oh.
And ground beef is sweet,but it's not sugar.
Sweet.
These are.
A savory deliciousness.
Mark (15:59):
Yeah, it's really good.
And I just want to say that,uh, Bruce buys the Moody.
It's expensive.
And so if you don't know this,um, you can often find it on
sale at places like World Market.
Um.
Home Goods.
And Home Goods.
You can often find it there discounted.
And if you do, just buy it up.
In fact, Bruce looks atthe World Market sales.
(16:20):
And when he sees Moody onsale, he orders a case.
And, uh,
Bruce (16:26):
goes and picks it up.
Not only that, World Market has the thingwhere if you order online and then you go
to pick it up, they take 20 percent off.
So, not only do I get a great sale,I get even more discount on it.
Yeah, so,
Mark (16:36):
it's just worth the effort to get better tomato
passata, to get the real thing.
I know, it's crazy.
sounds really funny, but there's nothingreally extraordinary in our meatballs
other than maybe, uh, the anchovy paste.
Yeah.
There's nothing really crazy here.
The deal is the passata.
It's all about that tomato.
It is all about the tomato.
It is.
And we eat this not with noodles,uh, I just should tell you.
(16:59):
We eat this with grilled baguettes.
Pieces, grilled bread pieces.
Slice them in
Bruce (17:04):
half, rub them with olive oil, salt them, and put them either on the grill or
in the air fryer until they're crunchy.
You can even rub the bread withgarlic and turn it into grilled
garlic bread if you want.
These are a fabulous dinner.
These will last us for a couple of meals.
And this is worth makingany time of the year.
Mark (17:22):
Let me just say, before we get to the last segment of the podcast,
it would be great if you could ratethis podcast, if you could give
it a review, even great podcast.
Thanks so much for that, because we areunsupported and choose to remain that way.
And we would like to remain that way.
So the way that you can help us andsupport us is by giving us a rating.
If you haven't ever done that, justgo out to whatever platform you're on.
(17:42):
And dare I ask it, give us five stars and.
Just a comment, like nice podcast.
If you can't, that reallyhelps things in the analytics.
And it's the way we can remain supported.
Okay.
As is traditional, the finalsegment of this podcast, what's
making us happy in food this week.
Bruce (18:02):
My sister's generosity.
She's the best.
sent a 20 pound box of SantaRosa plums from the tree in
her backyard in California.
She does it every year.
And I opened that box and I madea 10 jars of Santa Rosa plum jam.
And I have cut up the.
Other half of them.
And I'm about to make Santa Rosa plum.
(18:22):
Yeah,
Mark (18:23):
she just goes and gets a flat rate box and shoves it full of
plums and mails it from Californiaand it shows up every year.
And in fact, she asked if we wanted asecond box and I might take her up on it.
Yeah, I know.
It's crazy how much fruit they producein their backyard from these plum trees.
And it is really good.
What's making me happy in food thisweek is something that's kind of weird.
(18:43):
Um, I'm sure you can hear it.
I'm all stopped up andI'm a little coffee.
And that's because yes, I havehad the plague COVID and it's
been disgusting to have it.
And, uh, I was my first time.
I thought I was going to get todonate my body to science as the first
COVID free body, but no, I caught it.
Um, from a very, very thoughtlessfriend who chose to go out to dinner
(19:09):
with us while she was testing positive.
Um, that's a whole different subject,but what's making me happy in food this
week is that I've gotten to eat a lotof ice cream and I love ice cream and
ice cream is my go to sick food and Ihave been eating ice cream like Crazy
over the last week because it's just thego to comfort food in the world for me.
(19:29):
And yes, I prefer swirly ice creams.
So chocolate swirls and caramelswirls and salt caramel.
That's all the stuff that Ireally go for is the swirly ice
creams with chocolate and caramel.
And I've just beenindulging myself like crazy.
And it's been really fabulousto eat really good ice cream,
even if I had to get the plate.
(19:51):
So that's our.
Uh, podcaster for this week.
Thanks for being a part ofour time on the internet.
We appreciate your being on thisjourney with us, and we certainly
appreciate your spending time
Bruce (20:04):
with us.
And every week we tell youwhat's making us happy in food.
So go to our Facebook group, Cookingwith Bruce and Mark, and tell us what's
making you happy in food this week.
And we look at those, we share them.
Sometimes we make them and talk aboutthem here on Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein and this is the podcast
cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Mark (00:04):
And I'm Mark Scarborough.
And together with Bruce, we havewritten over three dozen cookbooks.
This is our podcast about foodand cooking, our passions in life.
In this episode of the podcast, we'vegot a one minute cooking tip about,
of all things, white chocolate.
We're going to be making.
Meatballs during this episode.
And we'll tell you what's makingus happy in food this week.
(00:26):
So let's get started.
Bruce (00:32):
Our one minute cooking tip.
Want to be a pastry chef in your own home?
Try roasting white chocolate.
What, what, what isroasted white chocolate?
When you melt it in the ovenon a sheet pan, it caramelizes.
It takes about 40 minutes and the sugarscaramelize and it comes out a deep.
(00:53):
It's almost like making dulce deleche out of sweetened condensed milk.
Okay, so just back up.
So what do you do?
Take your white chocolate, whetherit's 6 ounces, 8 ounces, 12
ounces, 2 pounds, whatever it is.
Chop it up, put it on a baking tray.
Mark (01:07):
A lipped baking tray.
Sure.
And you know No, not sure.
No, not sure.
Bruce (01:13):
Okay, a lipped baking tray.
And you're going to place it inan oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
And you're going to stir itaround every 5 or 10 minutes.
It'll take about 40 minutes untilit's all golden and caramelized.
Then what I like to do isscrape it onto a piece of paper.
parchment, spread it out and let it cool.
Then you could break it up and eat it.
You could melt it again and use it fordesserts that call for melted chocolate.
(01:36):
You can pipe it onto things.
You could dip strawberries into it.
You can make ganache out of it.
It's a real.
big pastry chef.
Can you then, uh, cool it and breakit up and store it in your pantry?
You can, you can even mix nuts into thatand make a caramelized white chocolate
bark, which I think sounds really good.
Okay,
Mark (01:55):
well there you are, um, roasting white chocolate.
Before we get on to makingmeatballs in this podcast, let me
say that we do have a newsletter.
It comes out, I don't know, maybetwice a month, maybe once a month,
twice a month, something like that.
You can sign up for thatnewsletter on our website.
BruceAndMark.
com or CookingWithBruceAndMark.
(02:15):
com.
You can then get our newsletter, whichis unrelated mostly to this podcast.
And I should also say, if you goout to our website, BruceAndMark.
com or CookingWithBruceAndMark.
com, we started putting up recipes.
And we're currently on a jag of chocolatechip or chocolate cookies on Twitter.
tiktok videos and those recipesare going up even as we speak.
(02:38):
Check that out and find out freerecipe content on our website.
So up next, we're going to make meatballs.
Bruce (02:48):
Meatballs are like chicken soup.
Every cook makes their own version.
Everyone grows up thinking that theway their mother or grandmother made
them is the only way they should be
Mark (02:59):
eaten.
So, I have to make a confession.
And, um, if you don't know, if youhaven't listened to this podcast enough,
you don't know that I have an aversionto, uh, well, what we called loose meat
growing up, but that is ground beef.
Or, quote unquote, ground beef.
hamburger.
And if you know me, I eat hamburgers,but I eat them blood rare.
(03:20):
And mostly I don't like ground beef.
I know it's this thing.
And I really don't like meatloaf.
And I
Bruce (03:28):
don't get it.
I don't understand that meatloaf aversion.
I could tell you something.
Mark is going to go visit hismother in a week and I'm going
to be alone for four days.
I plan on making meatloaf.
Oh, good.
You
Mark (03:38):
eat it all up.
But here's the thing about,uh, and, uh, don't even get me
started on hamburger casseroles.
Oh, no, but that is loose meat.
That's
Bruce (03:48):
disgusting.
Mark (03:49):
Oh, God.
Oh, I grew up on that stuff.
Um, anyway, uh, I don't reallylike it, but here's the thing.
I like meatballs.
And it's a really weirdthing because mostly I don't
really care for ground beef.
But, uh, But I love meatballs and Ithink it has to do with the browning.
So we'll get
Bruce (04:05):
to that.
But what I have here is beef and sausage.
Now, we're going to start already.
People are going to say, no,meatballs have to have veal or beef.
They could be only beefor only beef and pork.
In our house, it's acombination of lean meat.
Ground beef and fattyItalian sweet sausage.
And how much?
(04:26):
I have a
Mark (04:26):
pound of each.
Okay, so a pound of each.
And also, we should say that we prefer,and this is a big controversy in the
food world, but we have fresh sausages.
breadcrumbs here.
So here's what happens.
Let me tell you way too much about ourlives as I'm staring at these breadcrumbs.
Uh, the, our dog gets acid reflux.
(04:47):
I know this is ridiculous totell you, but okay, here it is.
Our colleague gets acid reflux.
And so in order to stop that fromhappening every night before bed,
he gets half a piece of breadcrumbs.
toast.
Um, just literally whitewhipped sandwich bread toast.
He gets half a piece andthat helps calm it all down.
But we end up with a lot ofcrusts from all this white bread.
(05:08):
So we always have tons of crusts inthe freezer that Bruce can then grind
up into fresh, not dried breadcrumbs.
Yes, our dog likes us to cutthe crusts off his bread.
Don't, please don't write us about that.
So we have a half a cupof fresh breadcrumbs.
And by the way, you can lookfor fresh breadcrumbs at most
supermarkets at this point.
And we've got them ina quarter cup of milk.
(05:28):
It doesn't matter what kindof milk, whether it's low fat,
skim, or full fat, or all fat.
Oat or almond.
Just no
Bruce (05:35):
sweetened, gross.
And it's been sitting 20 minutes.
So that's nice and soft.
Now.
A lot of people I know were taughtthat you lift the bread out and
you gently squeeze the liquid out.
No, don't do that.
It's only a quarter cup and you wantthat moisture In to the meatballs.
And here's the thing, thosebreadcrumbs and milk have been
(05:55):
sitting in the bowl of my stand mixer.
And that's another thing thatI find is a fabulous tool.
So we'll talk about that aswe put this stuff in here.
What we're putting in here is
Mark (06:08):
that pound of ground beef and a pound of fatty, sweet Italian sausage,
and we're putting it in the stand mixerwith the milk and the breadcrumbs, and
then we're also adding a large egg.
Okay, so what do we need to
Bruce (06:19):
do before we mix?
We need to add our spices,and they're all in here.
Always the same.
I keep these the same becauseI want my meatballs to be
consistent every time I make them.
Two tablespoons dried minced parsley.
Dried parsley?
I love dried parsley in this.
Oh my god, what are you, my grandmother?
Yep.
Two teaspoons of oregano, ateaspoon of salt, and a half a
teaspoon each of grated nutmeg.
(06:41):
And a half a teaspoon of pepper.
Now, see, this is, uh,
Mark (06:44):
this is the difference between the chef and the writer.
He put dried oregano inthere, but he didn't say dried
oregano, so I'm gonna add it.
Dried oregano, but dried parsley?
Bruce (06:55):
Yeah, I love dried parsley.
Okay, I'm turning the mixeron, I'm letting this go now.
I love using the stand mixer forground beef, And it stems from my
experience making Chinese Dumplings,where you're supposed to only mix, maybe
you don't know this, but when you makeChinese dumplings, you're supposed to
mix the meat in one direction only.
(07:15):
What?
What?
What?
And you keep stirring.
No, it's true.
Only in one direction
Mark (07:19):
until My physics brain is speaking loudly right now, and I don't
have much of a physics brain left.
And you do that But it's speaking
Bruce (07:26):
loudly.
Until the meat mixture starts todevelop little stringy bits, and they're
kind of all going in one direction.
And then You want it to bepasty with stringy bits.
Look, that's what I learned.
I learned it from the internet.
And it's true.
I
Mark (07:40):
learned it from the
Bruce (07:42):
internet.
Actually, okay, let's go.
I'm gonna turn this off.
We're gonna look at this.
You got The stringy stuff'shappening with the meme.
Did you learn
Mark (07:49):
this part from the internet, too?
Mmm, yeah.
And now,
Bruce (07:54):
the fun part.
Mark (07:54):
I learned it.
I'm not over.
I learned it from the internet.
A.
How old are you?
I mean, really, honestly.
Very.
Very.
Yes, you deserve to be on Facebook.
And two.
Holy crap, don't we know that theinternet is a cesspool of misinformation?
We're on the internet.
Well, yeah, and, uh, we are.
Bruce (08:17):
We're
Mark (08:17):
part
Bruce (08:17):
of the cesspool.
So, I have now oiled up my handswith olive oil and I am forming
like golf ball sized balls, right?
And I am rubbing them withoil and making them smooth.
And I am putting them on a roasting pan.
And Mark has turned the oven on for me.
What'd you turn it
Mark (08:36):
on to?
To 375.
And it's on convection because wewant as much browning as possible.
And while we're doing this, and whilehe's making these, I just want to say that
what I find so funny is that my New YorkCity husband knows what a golf ball is.
This just tells you how long we'velived in the country with country clubs.
Bruce (08:53):
I grew up.
In New York City, going tominiature golf, putt putt.
So I knew about golf balls, they werepink and green and blue and yellow.
And you had to get them throughthe clown's nose and all of that.
So I
Mark (09:06):
knew all about golf balls.
So did you go to the putt putt that hadthe Our Lady of the Bathtub like I did?
No,
Bruce (09:14):
this was Jewish putt putt.
Jewish putt putt?
Yeah, it was like, you had toget it through the menorah.
Oh.
That is absurd.
But it was right across thestreet from the best diner that
ever existed in Queens, New York.
Yeah, I'm not
Mark (09:28):
talking anymore to you because you're talking about Jewish putt putt.
The Seville, you've been to that diner.
I have.
You have.
Um, okay, so what I'm gonna do is, uh,get away from Jewish putt putt because
it's just the, there's too much antiSemitism waiting to happen right there.
Okay.
I'm gonna talk about what I'm doing, whichis I am chopping a small yellow onion.
And I have one of those green.
(09:52):
You can also use a small greenbell pepper if you want, but, um, a
cubanelle or italian frying pepper,I've stemmed it, I'm cutting it away,
and I'm chopping it, and I'm gonnaalso chop up two cloves of garlic.
Bruce (10:04):
And while you're doing that, I have put a flame under my pot, and I've put
in three tablespoons of olive oil, and tothat, this is the way I like to do things.
I'm adding a tablespoonof chopped fresh rosemary.
Oh, suddenly it's fresh.
We
Mark (10:18):
don't have to use the dried stuff
Bruce (10:19):
anymore.
One and a half teaspoons of fennelseeds, a teaspoon of chili flakes,
and a teaspoon of anchovy paste.
And I put those aromaticsand spices into the oil.
And they fry up and they getvery flavorful and delicious,
but I don't want to burn them.
And then we're going to throw all thoseveggies that Mark chipped up into the pan.
Mark (10:40):
Right.
And so all this goes in the pan.
And if you're worried about anchovypaste and you think, Gross, I
don't want that in meatballs.
Trust me, it just cooks downand becomes this wildly Savory
background taste in everything.
It makes it so much more delicious.
So we're going to step away fromthis for a moment and let it reduce
Bruce (10:59):
and come back.
The onions and peppers areall browned on the edges.
Everything is wilted down.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
So we're reducing the heatand we're adding one pound
of sliced cremini mushrooms.
That is brown button mushroomsor baby portobello mushrooms.
(11:20):
And here's a trick.
Now is the time to add salt.
A half a teaspoon will help drawthe moisture out of these mushrooms
and that moisture will evaporate.
I want the mushrooms to reduce andbrown just like the onions did.
About five minutes.
We got to come back to that.
So wait, before we do that, wait,
Mark (11:36):
wait,
Bruce (11:37):
wait.
I think
Mark (11:37):
that this is a really important thing.
Um, you do have to let mushroomssweat and you have to let that
liquid come out and then reduce down.
Otherwise you can havea really watery sauce.
Mushrooms are So loadedwith water and moisture.
You really need to let that come out.
And plus that also, as it reduces,adds a ton of flavor to the sauce.
(11:57):
So, okay, we're going tocut away and come back.
Now it's time to deglaze the pan.
So we have about a halfa cup of dry vermouth.
You could also use unsweetened applejuice if you don't want any liquor.
If you want to get fancy, youcan use dry white wine, use
dry cherry, use more salad.
You can use masala, you can get really as
Bruce (12:19):
fancy as you want.
Just don't open up the a hundreddollars bottle of Barolo.
Mark (12:23):
Don't, no, do not deglaze with that.
And don't deglaze with bourbon.
Or if you don't wannaburn your house down.
So you pour that in, scrapeand you scrape everything up.
And now it comes.
The big thing, the jar of
Bruce (12:35):
Moody tomato sata, which is a tomato puree from Italy.
We have talked about Moody before.
It's been one of the thingsmaking us happy in food this week.
Ever since I discoveredMutti, it is all I use.
In fact, this summer, it is just aboutgetting tomato time, and I don't even
think I'm going to put up my own tomatoesthis year, because there's Mutti.
(12:55):
And while I thought Mutti passata wasthe best thing I ever found, I found
a level of Mutti that's even better.
It's this Toscana Mutti.
It gives the name of the farmwhere the tomatoes are from.
It gives the varietal of tomatoes.
If you could find Mootie and youcan find this Toscana mootie, use
it that's been poured in and I'm notwasting a drop of it It's very thick.
(13:19):
So I'm rinsing the jar outwith some water and pouring
Mark (13:22):
that in Okay, and that really honestly is the bid and so now what
we're gonna do is we're gonna take thoseMeatballs, they have browned in the
oven for how long they've been in thereabout 15 minutes And we're gonna take
them out of the oven and we're gonna putthem in this sauce and cover it reduce
the heat to low And let it simmer forone hour long time It's gonna simmer
(13:45):
some of that brownie coating on themeatballs is gonna come off into the
sauce It's all gonna get much richard.
You want this at a really slow?
Simmer not too much.
It
Bruce (13:57):
always amazes me when people throw meatballs right into a sauce
like this without browning them.
I don't understand thatyou just boiling them.
They've got to be browned.
If you don't want to brown them in theoven, I sure you could brown them in
another skillet if you want, but thattakes such a mess and so much time.
I have even in my lifedone them in the air fryer.
Mark (14:15):
If you, if you don't brown your meatballs, um, just to be
gross, you end up with meat pudding.
You end up with this like really.
Soft meat pudding balls.
Oh, I just, gross.
Soft meat pudding balls.
Oh, my.
Okay, so this is going to goabout an hour, and we will be
back to taste it and dish it up.
Bruce (14:36):
It smells so good in here.
The tomatoes have reduced a bit.
The sauce is thick, but not too thick.
And the last thing I want to do before weeat it is tear up some fresh basil leaves.
I have like 12 basil leaves here, andI'm going to Put those in, stir them in.
I want that fresh basilflavor when we eat these.
We're going to ladle this up.
(14:57):
These are hot, so we're gonnahave to like do something Mark
hates, which is blow on your food.
No,
Mark (15:02):
I'm not blowing on it.
I'm just waiting.
So what you do is you dish it up, youcoat it, you put as much grated Parmesan
cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano, please,into the bowl, and then I add a ton.
of cracked black pepper, and Icontinue to salt because salt
is my, my weakness in life.
Bruce (15:24):
Yeah, I think to me that the cheese is going to add enough salt to this.
No, not nearly enough.
I am, I'm going to blow onthis because I want to try it.
Oh, this is so hot.
Savory.
It's hot.
It's hot, but it's hot.
It's delicious.
It's so savory.
Wow.
The problem with tomato sauces for meis sometimes they could be too sweet.
Yes.
And the is not we.
(15:45):
The moti is not sweet.
We didn't add any sugar.
Yes.
Onions are sweet and evenmushrooms have a sweetness to them.
And we use sweet sausage.
Oh.
And ground beef is sweet,but it's not sugar.
Sweet.
These are.
A savory deliciousness.
Mark (15:59):
Yeah, it's really good.
And I just want to say that,uh, Bruce buys the Moody.
It's expensive.
And so if you don't know this,um, you can often find it on
sale at places like World Market.
Um.
Home Goods.
And Home Goods.
You can often find it there discounted.
And if you do, just buy it up.
In fact, Bruce looks atthe World Market sales.
(16:20):
And when he sees Moody onsale, he orders a case.
And, uh,
Bruce (16:26):
goes and picks it up.
Not only that, World Market has the thingwhere if you order online and then you go
to pick it up, they take 20 percent off.
So, not only do I get a great sale,I get even more discount on it.
Yeah, so,
Mark (16:36):
it's just worth the effort to get better tomato
passata, to get the real thing.
I know, it's crazy.
sounds really funny, but there's nothingreally extraordinary in our meatballs
other than maybe, uh, the anchovy paste.
Yeah.
There's nothing really crazy here.
The deal is the passata.
It's all about that tomato.
It is all about the tomato.
It is.
And we eat this not with noodles,uh, I just should tell you.
(16:59):
We eat this with grilled baguettes.
Pieces, grilled bread pieces.
Slice them in
Bruce (17:04):
half, rub them with olive oil, salt them, and put them either on the grill or
in the air fryer until they're crunchy.
You can even rub the bread withgarlic and turn it into grilled
garlic bread if you want.
These are a fabulous dinner.
These will last us for a couple of meals.
And this is worth makingany time of the year.
Mark (17:22):
Let me just say, before we get to the last segment of the podcast,
it would be great if you could ratethis podcast, if you could give
it a review, even great podcast.
Thanks so much for that, because we areunsupported and choose to remain that way.
And we would like to remain that way.
So the way that you can help us andsupport us is by giving us a rating.
If you haven't ever done that, justgo out to whatever platform you're on.
(17:42):
And dare I ask it, give us five stars and.
Just a comment, like nice podcast.
If you can't, that reallyhelps things in the analytics.
And it's the way we can remain supported.
Okay.
As is traditional, the finalsegment of this podcast, what's
making us happy in food this week.
Bruce (18:02):
My sister's generosity.
She's the best.
sent a 20 pound box of SantaRosa plums from the tree in
her backyard in California.
She does it every year.
And I opened that box and I madea 10 jars of Santa Rosa plum jam.
And I have cut up the.
Other half of them.
And I'm about to make Santa Rosa plum.
(18:22):
Yeah,
Mark (18:23):
she just goes and gets a flat rate box and shoves it full of
plums and mails it from Californiaand it shows up every year.
And in fact, she asked if we wanted asecond box and I might take her up on it.
Yeah, I know.
It's crazy how much fruit they producein their backyard from these plum trees.
And it is really good.
What's making me happy in food thisweek is something that's kind of weird.
(18:43):
Um, I'm sure you can hear it.
I'm all stopped up andI'm a little coffee.
And that's because yes, I havehad the plague COVID and it's
been disgusting to have it.
And, uh, I was my first time.
I thought I was going to get todonate my body to science as the first
COVID free body, but no, I caught it.
Um, from a very, very thoughtlessfriend who chose to go out to dinner
(19:09):
with us while she was testing positive.
Um, that's a whole different subject,but what's making me happy in food this
week is that I've gotten to eat a lotof ice cream and I love ice cream and
ice cream is my go to sick food and Ihave been eating ice cream like Crazy
over the last week because it's just thego to comfort food in the world for me.
(19:29):
And yes, I prefer swirly ice creams.
So chocolate swirls and caramelswirls and salt caramel.
That's all the stuff that Ireally go for is the swirly ice
creams with chocolate and caramel.
And I've just beenindulging myself like crazy.
And it's been really fabulousto eat really good ice cream,
even if I had to get the plate.
(19:51):
So that's our.
Uh, podcaster for this week.
Thanks for being a part ofour time on the internet.
We appreciate your being on thisjourney with us, and we certainly
appreciate your spending time
Bruce (20:04):
with us.
And every week we tell youwhat's making us happy in food.
So go to our Facebook group, Cookingwith Bruce and Mark, and tell us what's
making you happy in food this week.
And we look at those, we share them.
Sometimes we make them and talk aboutthem here on Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
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