The Art of Creating a Delicious Italian-Style Meatball and Tomato Sauce Dish

As we begin our culinary journey, it's essential to understand the importance of using high-quality ingredients, particularly when it comes to garlic. Five large cloves are the perfect amount for this dish, and we'll be using them to add depth and richness to our meatballs and tomato sauce. To bring out the natural sweetness in our onions, we'll cook them until they're translucent and then set them aside to cool off slightly.

Next, we'll focus on creating a flavorful tomato sauce that will serve as the base for our dish. We'll start by adding some oil to the pan, making sure there's enough moisture to prevent the onions from burning. Then, we'll add in our chopped onions and cook until they're soft and translucent. The water released during cooking will evaporate, leaving behind a concentrated flavor that will elevate our sauce.

To further enhance the flavor of our sauce, we'll add in some Italian flat-leaf parsley, which is typically used to garnish dishes like this one. By removing the stems and leaves only, we'll be able to capture the essence of the herb without overpowering the other flavors. This may seem like a small detail, but it's crucial in achieving that perfect balance of flavors.

Now, let's move on to preparing our meatballs. We'll start by mixing together ground yellow pork, beef, and parmesan cheese with some eggs and bread crumbs. The addition of parsley will add freshness, while the ricotta cheese will provide creaminess. A pinch of salt and a splash of water will help bind everything together.

Before we assemble our meatballs, it's essential to taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. We want to ensure that each bite is packed with flavor without overpowering the delicate balance of our dish. Next, we'll shape our mixture into small balls and bake them in the oven at a high temperature to create a crispy exterior and a tender interior.

As our meatballs cook, we can start preparing our tomato sauce by simmering it on low heat until the flavors have melded together seamlessly. The key is to taste regularly and adjust the seasoning accordingly. With great flavor comes great responsibility, after all!

Finally, let's garnish our dish with some fresh parsley, chives, or a sprinkle of parmesan cheese to add a pop of color and freshness. A raw garlic clove rubbed onto each meatball will complete the dish perfectly.

As we plate our beautifully prepared Italian-style meatballs with ricotta, pickles, and a side of crusty bread, it's clear that this is more than just a meal – it's an experience. The combination of flavors and textures is truly delightful, making every bite a symphony of taste and aroma. Buon appetito!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwell hi guys welcome back how are you all feeling we're going to be making meatballs with the marinara sauce we are also going to be making a ricotta cheese whoa you're like what we're going to make cheese we're the worst cooks in america are you guys ready for your main dish challenge so what to get started with i'm going to render some pancetta so i'm gonna take about half my pancetta i'm going to slice it six dices things like pancetta and bacon much easier to cut when they're cold so i'm gonna kind of melt the fat out of there and then i'm going to use that fat to saute my onions in so i need onions for my sauce and for my meatballs so what do you think i just get cutting them all right now cutting and cooking them and then i'm going to split some of them off some for my meatballs and some for my sauce look at me multitasking and thinking ahead all right so look at we have a nice pan full of fat my pancetta is like a nice little golden brown i have onions for both my meatballs and my sauce i'm adding a pinch of crushed red pepper so i have my onions on like a medium high heat i'm going to let these sweat until they're soft and translucent and very aromatic in the meantime i'm going to get my garlic ready i'm going to do about five cloves of garlic and i want like nice big ones you know we're making meatballs and tomato sauce you want to feel a nice garlic presence in this all right so i'm going to give this a little tiny bit more oil if you don't have enough oil on here things will just burn what we're cooking out here is the water from our onions when you cook water off what stays in the pan is the flavor so what you're doing is kind of concentrating the flavor that right there is a chef facial let me just tell you this all right so this is what we call italian flat leaf parsley we just want the leaves of these guys we don't want the stems hold all the stems like flowers and then let's just give the leaves a shape and i get it into the very smallest place that i can okay all right so look at what we got going on here we can see these are sweaty we're really on the road to something delicious all right so i'm going to take half of this out because if i put these screaming hot onions on top of the the gram meat it would sort of start to cook the meat and then it would not stick together so we're just gonna let this cool off a little bit we're going to bounce back over to here we're going to build the sauce in this pan rinse that water out in there get all the tomatoes that's like a restaurant and trick so i'm just going to give this a little bit of a pulse i want to add my tomatoes i'm going to add a bunch of water to my sauce too so tomato sauce working all right now i'm ready to put my meatballs together we have three different kinds of meat yellow pork and beef each one brings a different thing to the party and i have two eggs about a half a cup of bread crumbs my parsley i'm going to start with about a half a cup of parmesan cheese onions and garlic that are already ready already salt water yes you got to keep put some moisture in there the moisture is gonna cook out so if i don't add any moisture in and it cooks out then i'm gonna be left with a tough dry ball i'm just gonna cook my tester patty i'm gonna go wash my hand and then we're gonna get tasty now my tomato sauce look i brought it to a boil i'm gonna reduce it to a simmer tomatoes are very very sweet so this is why i really need to taste them a lot because they take a lot of salt so here we go one more time you guys go you feel the garlic wow salt turns the volume up on the flavor while i'm waiting for my tester patty i'm going to get this stuff together for my ricotta i'm going to put it on a burner and bring to boil so i'm going to taste this guy i think i'm pretty good but i'm gonna add a little bit more cheese and a little bit more salt there's different schools of thought about this next step there are some people that say fry them which is a great way but it takes a lot of time and it's really really really messy what do you think i'm gonna do i'm gonna make it really good i'm going to bake them in the oven on a really high temperature like 500 degrees so the protein firms up quickly and they start to ground a little bit so i'm getting like a two for one deal and a clean kitchen all right so when we're making cheese ricotta basically what it is is cooked milk and heavy cream and then we are going to add some vinegar to this and what that is going to do is going to make the milk solids in here curdle i am going to add a little bit of salt to this and i'm going to add two tablespoons of vinegar that's going to make things coagulate we're just kind of gently pulling this away from the sides all right and we're not trying to bust up the curves we want to keep those solid my ricotta is draining we are going to garnish our meatballs with dill pickles right pickles and meatballs go together beautifully when i have things that are like tomato saucy and that kind of stuff i like to have a little bread to go with it all right i'm gonna go grab my meatballs all right guys meatballs i'm just gonna brush my bread with a little olive oil now i'm just going to get my chives cut and then we are ready to plate just a raw garlic clove rub right on there all right let's plate fluffy warm ricotta put that right on top some pickles and we're going to finish up with some chives what do you guys think it's lovely it looks beautiful all about pickle wow that's cool delicious and it's just a plate of meatballswell hi guys welcome back how are you all feeling we're going to be making meatballs with the marinara sauce we are also going to be making a ricotta cheese whoa you're like what we're going to make cheese we're the worst cooks in america are you guys ready for your main dish challenge so what to get started with i'm going to render some pancetta so i'm gonna take about half my pancetta i'm going to slice it six dices things like pancetta and bacon much easier to cut when they're cold so i'm gonna kind of melt the fat out of there and then i'm going to use that fat to saute my onions in so i need onions for my sauce and for my meatballs so what do you think i just get cutting them all right now cutting and cooking them and then i'm going to split some of them off some for my meatballs and some for my sauce look at me multitasking and thinking ahead all right so look at we have a nice pan full of fat my pancetta is like a nice little golden brown i have onions for both my meatballs and my sauce i'm adding a pinch of crushed red pepper so i have my onions on like a medium high heat i'm going to let these sweat until they're soft and translucent and very aromatic in the meantime i'm going to get my garlic ready i'm going to do about five cloves of garlic and i want like nice big ones you know we're making meatballs and tomato sauce you want to feel a nice garlic presence in this all right so i'm going to give this a little tiny bit more oil if you don't have enough oil on here things will just burn what we're cooking out here is the water from our onions when you cook water off what stays in the pan is the flavor so what you're doing is kind of concentrating the flavor that right there is a chef facial let me just tell you this all right so this is what we call italian flat leaf parsley we just want the leaves of these guys we don't want the stems hold all the stems like flowers and then let's just give the leaves a shape and i get it into the very smallest place that i can okay all right so look at what we got going on here we can see these are sweaty we're really on the road to something delicious all right so i'm going to take half of this out because if i put these screaming hot onions on top of the the gram meat it would sort of start to cook the meat and then it would not stick together so we're just gonna let this cool off a little bit we're going to bounce back over to here we're going to build the sauce in this pan rinse that water out in there get all the tomatoes that's like a restaurant and trick so i'm just going to give this a little bit of a pulse i want to add my tomatoes i'm going to add a bunch of water to my sauce too so tomato sauce working all right now i'm ready to put my meatballs together we have three different kinds of meat yellow pork and beef each one brings a different thing to the party and i have two eggs about a half a cup of bread crumbs my parsley i'm going to start with about a half a cup of parmesan cheese onions and garlic that are already ready already salt water yes you got to keep put some moisture in there the moisture is gonna cook out so if i don't add any moisture in and it cooks out then i'm gonna be left with a tough dry ball i'm just gonna cook my tester patty i'm gonna go wash my hand and then we're gonna get tasty now my tomato sauce look i brought it to a boil i'm gonna reduce it to a simmer tomatoes are very very sweet so this is why i really need to taste them a lot because they take a lot of salt so here we go one more time you guys go you feel the garlic wow salt turns the volume up on the flavor while i'm waiting for my tester patty i'm going to get this stuff together for my ricotta i'm going to put it on a burner and bring to boil so i'm going to taste this guy i think i'm pretty good but i'm gonna add a little bit more cheese and a little bit more salt there's different schools of thought about this next step there are some people that say fry them which is a great way but it takes a lot of time and it's really really really messy what do you think i'm gonna do i'm gonna make it really good i'm going to bake them in the oven on a really high temperature like 500 degrees so the protein firms up quickly and they start to ground a little bit so i'm getting like a two for one deal and a clean kitchen all right so when we're making cheese ricotta basically what it is is cooked milk and heavy cream and then we are going to add some vinegar to this and what that is going to do is going to make the milk solids in here curdle i am going to add a little bit of salt to this and i'm going to add two tablespoons of vinegar that's going to make things coagulate we're just kind of gently pulling this away from the sides all right and we're not trying to bust up the curves we want to keep those solid my ricotta is draining we are going to garnish our meatballs with dill pickles right pickles and meatballs go together beautifully when i have things that are like tomato saucy and that kind of stuff i like to have a little bread to go with it all right i'm gonna go grab my meatballs all right guys meatballs i'm just gonna brush my bread with a little olive oil now i'm just going to get my chives cut and then we are ready to plate just a raw garlic clove rub right on there all right let's plate fluffy warm ricotta put that right on top some pickles and we're going to finish up with some chives what do you guys think it's lovely it looks beautiful all about pickle wow that's cool delicious and it's just a plate of meatballs\n"