It's a giant meatball that's cooked
in the style of dumplings.
We're not going to fry the meatball or roast the meatball,
we're going to make a big batch of our meatballs
and cook them gently right in the sauce.
It's my husband's favorite way to eat meatballs.
We're using two pounds total of ground meats,
a mixture of ground beef, pork, and veal.
I use one pound of ground beef
and a half a pound of the veal and pork.
To that I also add prosciutto cotto, or cooked ham.
I put about a quarter pound of that in the food processor
and grind that up to mix in with the meat.
A handful each of Parmigiano-Reggiano and grated Pecorino.
Parmigiano is cow's milk, Pecorino is sheep's milk.
These are toasted Italian breadcrumbs,
they're pre-toasted and nice and golden
so they're a little nutty.
And you wanna moisten those with a little bit of milk.
And in these I love a little fresh ricotta,
this is sheep's milk ricotta.
A little garlic.
A little flat-leaf parsley, of course.
A little fennel seed or fennel pollen or both.
Then a little bit of nutmeg to go with the ricotta.
And, of course, salt and pepper.
A large egg.
Boop!
A fat drizzle of good fruity olive oil.
And just start working that, don't overwork the meatballs.
I have onions and garlic sweating out in olive oil.
To that I'm just gonna add stock,
a jar of passata, a can of tomatoes.
Let that cook down a bit.
We're going to add these guys to the sauce right after this.
(audience cheering)
Okay, so we're just finishing rolling our meatballs.
They have three different types of cheese in them,
they have the Pecorino, the Parmigiano-Reggiano,
and the fresh ricotta.
They have beef, pork, and veal, the ground prosciutto cotto.
Bucatini is his favorite for this dish.
So that's big, fat, hollow spaghetti,
it's actually kind of fun to eat.
The sauce, as I said before the break,
all I did was let an onion cook down low and slow
in olive oil with a little butter and olive oil in the pan
and a little crushed or chopped garlic.
Let that cook until it's nice, sweet mush,
don't brown the onions, nice and sweet.
Then you add some stock, chicken or beef stock,
one jar of passata,
about three cups of tomato puree in other words,
and one can of San Marzano tomatoes.
(audience applauding)
I'm gonna tear a few leaves in
'cause now we're ready to drop our dumplings.
Give this a little stir.
There we go.
Wilt in a little bit of that.
I've got this on medium heat and as I said,
we're gonna cook these like dumplings,
so you just drop the meatballs
literally right down into the sauce
and let them cook in there.
And now I'm gonna put the lid kind of
ajar to trap some of that steam
and let them cook gently for a few minutes
before you mess with them at all.
Be very careful when you're stirring them,
you don't wanna break them up
before they finish cooking through.
Whenever we cook pasta, we salt the water generously
'cause we use the salty, starchy water
to marry the sauce to the pasta.
Drop your pasta, give it a little spin
every couple of minutes and always cook it at least
one minute less than the package directions
for al dente, or to-the-tooth,
because you have carryover cooking
when you're tossing the pasta with the sauce,
so if you take it all the way to where you want to eat it
it'll be overcooked by the time you put it in the bowl.
That's it, we'll come back
and marry the pasta and the sauce and eat!
(audience cheering)
So, to the bucatini a little of your starchy cooking water,
I added a coupla dabs of butter,
my mom always finished our pasta
with butter, cheese, and then the sauce.
A fat handful of Parmigiano or Pecorino or both.
And then you get that to marry with a good stir,
you want that to emulsify a bit.
Good fruity olive oil and-or butter
so you're adding a little fat to the pasta
with the starchy water and the cheese as your foundation.
And my mama always used her mug
to transfer the sauce over to the pot.
(audience applauding)
And here's our tomato-basil sauce that has lots of flavor
because we cooked the meatballs in it
and we added our stock as well.
And there you go!
(audience gasping)
Just kinda.
Yes!
(audience cheering)