Earlier today we were fortunate enough to be given a cracking Napoletana/Napoli/marinara sauce recipe by a new chef friend on Twitter. We’d been thinking about banging out the classics for a while but none of us seemed to have got round to doing it. I made that recipe pretty much immediately after receiving it and it was so good I had to use it for our family dinner tonight. It reminded me about the Frankies Spuntino book I was given a few years ago by a friend from New York, from an old school Italian joint in Brooklyn. It’s all bound in black leather and gold – proper Goodfellas stuff. Anyway, it didn’t take long to realise I didn’t have a number of things they put in their meatballs so I decided to make my own instead. Here you go:
Serves 4
Bread 1 slice of stale/toasted
Garlic 1 clove
Parsley small handful, fresh
Minced/ground beef 500g; everyone says 10-12% fat, I only had 20%
Flour for dusting
Marinara sauce as much as you made
Pasta 400g of your choice; I used linguine today
Stick the bread, garlic and half the parsley in a blender and blitz to crumbs. In a mixing bowl, combine with the beef amd mix/knead thoroughly. Divide and roll the meat mix into approximately 1 inch diameter balls. You should get about 16-18.
Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan of sorts, roll each ball in a small dish of flour to coat and then fry on a medium to high heat until browned. Don’t overcrowd the pan. You want them to brown, not stew.
Remove with slotted spoon and add to the marinara sauce.
Keep it on a medium heat whilst you cook your pasta. Add the pasta to the sauce. Parmesan, parsley and pepper etc.