Family Vacation: Meatball Challenge

There are a lot of facts I know about my Mother, for example:

1. She loves Rod Stewart.

2. She prefers red wine.

3. She does not cook.

It’s just a fact of life. My mother is not one of those people who views an afternoon in the kitchen as “fun”. In fact her opinion is that the more time she spends in the kitchen, the less time she can sit on the beach… it’s a valid point.

However, I am quite the opposite. Ever since traveling to Italy, I love to cook. It’s like any art form to me, I spend the afternoon creating something yummy.

So last night, my mom was fixing “Italian Night” at the beach house. For her this meant as follows:

1. Open bag of frozen meatballs

2. Dump in crock pot

3. Pour in Prego

4. Turn it on and walk away

Now there is nothing wrong with this method. But for someone who appreciates a homemade meal, I felt there was room for improvement. So my mother posed a challenge; I would spend my afternoon making home made tomato sauce and mozzarella stuffed meatballs and we would have a taste test against her frozen Italian special.

It was on.

Here is my tomato sauce recipe (It’s super easy):

Total time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 8 oz fresh mushrooms
• 3 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes (no added flavoring or salt)
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 3 cloves garlic
• a little fresh basil

Just saute the onions and mushroom with garlic in the olive oil in a large pot for about 20- 25 minutes. Then add crushed tomatoes and tomato paste, parmesan cheese, and red wine. Let this simmer for 1.5- 2 hours and you have easy homemade sauce! (Don’t forget to add salt and pepper to taste)

But the real star of this meal is my mozzarella stuffed meatballs. They are super easy and a huge crowd pleaser.

Ingredients:

• 1 Lb (each) ground beef and ground pork (yesterday I couldn’t find ground pork so I used ground turkey and it worked out just fine!)
• 1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2-3 eggs
• 1 large onion
• Salt and Pepper
• Basil
• Oregano
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Lots of fresh mozzarella (whatever you don’t put in the meatballs, use as an appetizer!)

Luckily I sort of had some help from these peeps.

I should also apologize for my horrendously unsanitary cooking apparel, we’re at the beach– so I have to bum it. But everyone’s hands were clean!

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Add to large mixing bowl. Then add in Worcestershire sauce and spices. Then incorporate ground meat. Add eggs and parmesan cheese then begin to mix gently by hand. As you mix slowly incorporate bread crumbs until the mixture is as desired consistency (may need more or less depending on circumstances).

Once mixture is finished, recruit some help and start forming the meatballs.

The mozzarella should be cut into small pieces no bigger than a marble. Take a small amount of the meat mixture, form a pocket, insert the mozzarella, and seal it up well. The meatball should be about the size of a small golf ball (do those exist?)

Line them on a rack inside of a baking dish (I didn’t have a rack so I just made due). Bake them for 30 minutes at 350. When they are out of the oven, add them to your simmering tomato sauce and let them marry together until everyone is ready to eat.

You know, just me being attentive and such.

The best part of this experience was the blind taste test. My Aunt Sue lined everyone up, put a pillow case over their eyes and had them choose which meatball and sauce they liked better… Just saying 11 out of 12 people picked mine (clearly my uncle Mike has bad taste!) By the end of my night, all of my meatballs were gone and we still had a crock pot full of my mom’s.

The moral of the story is: put love in, get love out.

Also, I love my mom.

Jen