PEPPERONI MEATBALLS SPAGHETTI
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EACH MEATBALLS CONTAIN… A TON OF AGE-FORTIFIED FAT-BITS AND TIME-CONSUMING FLAVOURS
Last night, as I unleashed the freezer-section dumplings onto my most festive-looking plate, as part of our mostly-take-out Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner that didn’t even get bothered to be removed from its cleanup-friendly plastic-wares, and watched the annual city-wide shelling of fireworks carried out by every other citizens across the Beijing sky… I realized something.
I am a lousy… lousy… content curator.
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There’s… something wrong with this picture. Now is supposed to be the high-season for binge eating for most Asians, rivalling Thanksgiving in its contribution to glorified gluttony, a perfect cue for an Asian food-blogger such as myself, to abuse recipes like… banquet-style fried whole fish drenched in thickened sauce, or glistening red-braised pork ham-shank the size of my own thighs, or… or, at the very least, too much batter-fried sticky rice cake to regret over in the very next morning. But instead, I’m here talking to you about something as generic as… meatball spaghetti.
Well, I blame it on this. A 2 feet long monstrosity which I believe they call, who-the-hell-buys-a-whole-freaking-stick-of pepperoni, stretching its long leg into every last inch of leg-room inside my economy-class refrigerator for the past 2 weeks. It was a generous remnant from a lunch gathering and ever since, I’ve been struggling to put it to a just rest. On pizzas… in between sandwiches… blended into my Olay’s night cream. Then just when I was about one-lost-chapstick-away from rubbing it on my lips for good use, I was reminded of an old trick.
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It was a never-failing method, inspired by an epic dinner spent in Lupa in the West Village of New York many years ago, a genius method to inject the kind of flavours only old age can produce, by blending dry-cured meat products into fresh food preparation. The very same method, using trimmed prosciutto fats, landed me on the most insanely flavourful meatballs braised in white wine that I’ve ever tasted. And I thought if it already looked hot in white, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t look even sexier in red, right?
So here, amidst the Chinese festivity of lunar New Year, comes the Italian pepperoni meatball spaghetti braised in a red wine tomato sauce. May not be the most promptly cued entrance, but each meatballs contain not only the usual suspects of mixed ground meats, breadcrumbs, grated parmigiano cheese, herbs and whatnots, but also a ton of minced pepperoni sausage with all its age-glorified fat-bits and time-consuming flavours.
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There’s a complexity that only exists inside the cultivated molecules being farted out by a workforce of happy bacterias over a long period of occupancy, which is completely welded into the meatballs just after a relatively short period of braising. The fats get partially absorbed by the breadcrumbs within the meatballs as well as partially rendered into the sauce, deepened by just the right amount of red wine then heightened with a good dab of Dijon mustard at the end. It’s just not your regular, daddy’s Prego meatball spaghetti. It’s a time-fortified, age-defined, pepped-up meatball spaghetti that, consider yourself warned, might just be mean enough to hurt your grandmother’s ego.
So excuse me if I didn’t mention rice cake. Pardon my neglect for a CNY feast. Today, I’m afraid is just gonna be meatball spaghetti…
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Ingredients
- 1 cup diced (150 grams) pepperoni sausage
- 1/4 cup (1 small handful) parsley leaves
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/2 medium-size onion, cut into chunks
- 400 grams ground beef
- 280 grams ground pork
- 3/4 cup (50 grams) Japanese panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup (50 grams) grated parmigiano cheese
- 1 tsp ground cayenne
- 1 tsp crushed fennel seeds
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 small celery stalk, finely diced
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3/4 cup dry red wine
- 1200 grams (three 400 grams cans) peeled Italian tomatoes, pureed in a blender
- 3" parmigiano cheese rind
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 1 tbsp chili flakes
- 2 tsp honey
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- Chopped parsley leaves
Instructions
- TO MAKE THE MEATBALLS: Preheat the oven top-broiler on high. Run diced pepperoni, parsley leaves, garlics and onion in a food-processor until they resemble chunky, coarse meals. Transfer to a bowl along with ground beef, ground pork, panko breadcrumbs, grated parmigiano cheese, ground cayenne, crushed fennel seeds, ground paprika, salt and black pepper. Gently mix just until even, then shape the mixture into 8 tightly packed meatballs and place on a parchment-lined baking-sheet. Place in the middle-rack in the oven and toast until golden browned on all sides (flipping once). Set aside.
- TO MAKE SAUCE: In a large pot, cook extra virgin olive oil, chopped onion, garlic, celery stalk, fresh thyme and tomato paste with a generous pinch of salt over medium-high heat, until the onion is soft and the tomato paste starts to brown on the sides of the pot. Add dry red wine and cook for 5~6 min until almost completely evaporated. Then add the purreed tomatoes, parmigiano cheese rind, bay leaves, chili flakes, honey, ground black pepper, and all the browned meatballs with all the juice and dripping.
- Bring to a simmer then turn the heat to low, cover the pot with just a small slit for steam to escape, and let simmer for 2 hours until the liquid has reduced by 1/3. You should give it a gentle stir once every 20~30 min to prevent burning on the bottom. Re-season it along the way with salt if needed. The stew can be made days ahead. Before serving, gently mix the Dijon mustard into the sauce.
- TO SERVE: Cook 500 grams of dried spaghetti a couple min BEFORE al dente. Drain and transfer to a large pot, then add enough sauce to generously cover the spaghetti. Cook for another 2 min until the sauce is slightly reduced and coating every pasta, then transfer to a serving plate with the meatballs on top. Scatter more chopped parsley and a generous amount of grated parmigiano cheese. Serve immediately.
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Kari Jaquith
February 19, 2015 at 9:22 PMMama Mia thats a spicy meatball! Can’t wait to try this recipe out.
Kelsey M
February 19, 2015 at 10:10 PMI laughed out loud (garnering some strange looks from my boyfriend across the way) several times while reading this post. Looks like I’ll be making a trip to Little Italy sometime soon in search of some beautifully aged pepperoni.
-Kelsey
http://www.alittlerosemaryandtime.com
Ursula @ LilVienna.com
February 20, 2015 at 11:19 PMWhen making your trip to Little Italy, don’t forget to visit the neighborhood. I heard Little Vienna should be nice and that there is delicious food all over the place ;-) Just kidding…
I’m a huge fan of the Italian cuisine! The meatball spaghetti look simply awesome.
Kelsey M
February 24, 2015 at 3:11 AMI’ve worked around Chinatown off and on for a few years…so for Little Italy, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all there is to “see”. At least in that area ;) But I think Di Palo’s can hook me up with some seriously legit pepperoni!
cynthia
February 19, 2015 at 11:13 PMI will eat this for LNY any day! IT IS GLORIOUS. I want pepperoni in eeeverything. Happy new year to you, Mandy :)
Christine
February 19, 2015 at 11:28 PMYou’re some sort of evil genius, Mandy. This past weekend I made your Taiwan beef noodle soup and this weekend it looks like it will be these meatballs. Ohmygoodness
Amanda Vuu
February 20, 2015 at 12:07 AMOMG YES!
Karishma
February 20, 2015 at 2:28 AMAh this sounds delicious! Yum yum yum what a clever way to use up pepperoni
tunie
February 20, 2015 at 3:56 AMAlex and Aki at the blog, Ideas in Food, are way into pepperoni – bet you’d find some inspiration there!
tunie
February 20, 2015 at 3:57 AM…put pepperoni in the search bar…
ChiO
February 20, 2015 at 11:28 AMThis looks so amazing.
indugetscooking
February 20, 2015 at 1:18 PMHmmmmm. So badly want!
Edlyn
February 20, 2015 at 2:13 PMLousy content creator..WHATEVER MAN. You are stellar. You write “farted” in a sentence and I still want to eat it. I didn’t even remember it was CNY. It’s like when I walked into work today and my chef asked me why I wasn’t wearing red. “Err…” It’s Chinese New Year, she replied. “I’m Indian….,” I said.
Natasha.Tasha
February 20, 2015 at 6:09 PMOmg how do u come up with these recipes? This is divine! I would never thought to mix groung meat and pepperoni and make meatballs out of it!
Farah @ The Cooking Jar
February 21, 2015 at 4:09 AMSeriously drooling over here. I could stare at your pictures all day!
Jerrelle | Chocolate For Basil
February 21, 2015 at 10:46 PMSeriously, I love your photographs. Gorgeous!
Richard Griffiths
February 22, 2015 at 5:58 AMGoddess !!
cheryl
February 23, 2015 at 9:04 AMSooo, an x-boyfriend used to tell me about his grandma’s sauce that had pepperoni in it…I don’t remember what part of Italy she was from, cause we don’t use pepperoni in our “gravy”. Now I do have an aunt who throws in raisins in her meatballs, those are pretty tasty. This looks incredible and if I were still dating that x I
boyfriend would make it for him – his lost :)
Grace
February 23, 2015 at 6:57 PMHOLY MOLY. You’ve only gone and done it again. And I’m with you on the content creation…i failed to cook up a CNY post as well.
Laurie
February 24, 2015 at 12:58 AMI’m always looking for ways to use super flavorful, super hard, cured meats like Spanish chorizo and pepperoni in my cooking but have found their tough, chewy texture too jarring for soups, sauces, salads, etc. but I think you’ve found the trick. The food processor. Of course. Bringer of so much kitchen goodness. You too, Mandy:)
Desiree
February 24, 2015 at 1:20 AMThis post made me so happy–it combines some of my favorite things: (1) using up ingredients that are staring you in the face, (2) using deliciously fatty flavors and ingredients to make something new. I can’t wait to try this recipe!
peggy
February 24, 2015 at 9:26 AMwhere do you find pepperoni sausage?
mandy@ladyandpups
February 24, 2015 at 1:29 PMPeggy, depends on where you live. But affordable ones can be easily purchased on amazon.com :)
Kari
February 25, 2015 at 6:39 PMWhat a genius idea to use up something that you already had!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Andrea G
March 2, 2015 at 10:40 AMHi Mandy,
Just wanted to tell you that I made this and it was out of this world delicious! I didn’t have a pepperoni stick but I did have a couple of mild Hungarian sausages. Worked perfectly. I tossed in some sautéed dandelion greens just for fun at the end. The meatballs I’ve made in the past were always dry and basically flavorless. This took it through the roof.
mandy@ladyandpups
March 2, 2015 at 2:31 PMAndrea: I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!! Woooh Hungarian sausages!… I don’t think I’ve ever had them but it sounds amazing.
Regina
March 27, 2016 at 4:16 AMHi Mandy! My husband and I really enjoy making your recipes. He loves anything you do with spaghetti. I love anything with sichuan peppercorns.
Question: My broiler is out of commission. Regular oven works just fine. Any recommendations for temperature? Length of time?
mandy@ladyandpups
March 27, 2016 at 1:51 PMRegina, I would just preheat the oven at 230 C/500 F, and brown the meatballs on the middle rack :)
Regina
March 29, 2016 at 11:10 AMThanks so much! We loved it. Happy Moving!
Sylvia
January 14, 2020 at 8:49 AMI have been making these meatballs for a year and have abandoned all other recipes. Love your website.