Coronado Concerts in the Park: Grandma Maroni's Meatballs for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Jim and Carmen hosted Sunday's Concert in the Park with The Mar Dels, a well-known San Diego nostalgia band that performs dynamic renditions of the best music from the 50's - 70's. We all agreed 50's diner food would be a fun culinary theme to pair with the music, and we certainly made up for any calories saved during our healthier Mushrooms, Flowers and Weeds theme a few weeks ago.

Although I nicknamed this week's theme Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives after Guy Fieri's Food Network Show, I consulted Bobby Flay's Throwdown cookbook, based on another popular Food Network show, and came up with Spaghetti and Meatballs for my diner dish. 

In the Meatball Throwdown episode, Bobby's mission is to challenge Italian superstar Mike Maroni and his award-winning meatballs, a recipe handed down to him from his grandmother. Customers of Maroni's in Northport, NY buy pots of them...500 - 600 pots of meatballs a week of takeout to bring home to their own tables. Mama Mia,  that's a lot of meatballs!

It was no big surprise Grandma Maroni's Meatballs easily won the Throwndown against Irishman Flay's meatballs. Both the meatballs and the marinara sauce have only a few ingredients and are super easy to prepare. The meatballs are baked in the oven, and the sauce takes a mere 20 minutes of simmering. Key ingredients include ground beef chuck, Pecorino Romano cheese, and lots of garlic, fresh basil and parsley. Bobby's meatballs featured a mixture of ground beef chuck, veal and pork, parsley, and Parmesan cheese.

My preparation of Grandma Maroni's Meatballs

"Unless one of you guys can score me some coon meat, I'll be making baked chicken and gravy from Earline-Edison Broomfield's Davey's Halfway Home - a cafe way out in the woods near my hometown, Decatur, Mississippi. The restaurant looks the same as always and - as you can see from the guest list - several famous people including a few U.S. Presidents have dined there over the years. I'm also making cracklin' corn bread and vinegar pie - so come on, put your dish down on the table - bring on the tuna melts, hot pastrami, casserole and meatloaf and let's all have some supper!" - Carmen

Hostess Carmen

It was a great surprise when Jim and Sam arrived with the most amazing birthday cake for Jim's birthday! Sam decorated it with all sorts of fondant-sculpted diner food and signs, and said it took her 8 hours a day for three days to create the masterpiece. For her first attempt at cake decorating, I'd say she did a marvelous job! We all did our best to polish off the cake, but Jim was giving away pieces at the end of the evening to anyone who wanted some.

Sam (Photo courtesy of Jim)

The amazing Diner Birthday Cake

Jim and Carmen kissing the birthday boy

Carmen and Jim

Sam's design pieces for the cake were so realistic

The aftermath

Carmen's Baked Chicken and Gravy

John came up with Farmhouse Breakfast Deviled Eggs for this week, featuring mini sausage patties, toast, and sausage gravy.

John and his latest deviled egg creation

Adding sausage gravy

Farmhouse Breakfast Deviled Eggs

Grace (photo courtesy of Jim)

Since I doubled the recipes for the meatballs and sauce, there was enough for leftovers the next night.

Mike Maroni's Grandma Maroni's Meatballs
(100-year-old recipe)
Slightly adapted from Bobby Flay's Throwdown
Serves 4

Meatball Ingredients:

1 pound ground chuck
1 1/2 cups grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 1/4 cups fresh bread crumbs
3 large eggs
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup minced fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 small Spanish onion, grated or minced
3 tablespoons minced garlic
Pinch of kosher salt, or to taste

Maroni Sauce Ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil
12 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced
2 (28-ounce) cans imported crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large handful fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (small leaves left whole for garnish)

1 lb. spaghetti, cooked al dente

Meatball Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. If mixture seems a little loose add more bread crumbs.

Roll meatballs loosely about the size of a golf ball and place on baking sheet. Place into preheated oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned.

Maroni Sauce Preparation:

While the meatballs are baking, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until sightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute an additional 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt, and black pepper. Allow the sauce to come to a simmer and let simmer 20 for about minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the basil, and gently stir. Add the meatballs to the sauce and serve over spaghetti. Garnish with small whole basil leaves. Buon appetito!

Did somebody say leftover meatballs?

French Fridays with Dorie: David's Seaweed Sables

I knew I would love these little cocktail cookies. Every sushi bar should serve a couple of them as an amuse bouche, or alongside sake and beer. Savory-sweet cookies like these seaweed fleur de sel sables, mexican hot chocolate sables, chocolate cayenne cocktail cookies, and pistachio feta orange cocktail cookies should be set out on trays as complimentary happy hour bites, and offered at bars in place of those little bowls of cocktail nut mix. I'm all for replacing boring with interesting and unique. Dorie says patisseries all over Paris offer some version of classic sables with unclassic ad-ins like olives, cheese, bacon, cracked spices, or seasoned salt...because the salty cookies are "playful, chic, and attention-getting." They have my attention. I've gone through a half dozen just writing this first paragraph. Add addicting to the above description.

Dorie credits David Lebovitz for the recipe. If by some chance you don't know him, David is a pastry chef, blogger, and cookbook author, living the sweet life in Paris. David uses fleur de sel aux algues (fleur de sel and seaweed already mixed together), which may not be easy to find, but it's simple enough to toast and finely chop nori, and mix it into fleur de sel. David cooks his cookies at 300 F and Dorie cooks hers at 350 F. I like them a little golden and crunchy, so I went with 350 F. Also, after reading about toasting nori, and the method for making nori chips, I decided to add a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil to my cookie dough for another layer of flavor.

Seaweed Cocktail Cookies

Nori chips out of the oven

Chop the toasted nori

Finely chopped toasted nori

Mix the chopped nori with the fleur de sel

Dough ingredients ready to mix

Thinly sliced into 1/4-inch rounds

Sprinkled with salt and ready to bake

Out of the oven and onto a cooking rack

Enjoy with white, red or sparkling wine, sake, or beer

Seaweed Cocktail Cookies
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan and David Lebovitz
(Makes about 48 cookies)

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus additional for sprinkling the cookies
3 tablespoons finely chopped toasted nori (about 2 sheets)
9 tablespoons (110g) powdered sugar
1 large egg yolk
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (155g) flour

Preparation:

1.  Toast the sheets of nori (see note and link below) and finely chop enough to yield 3 tablespoons.
2.  In a small bowl, mix the chopped nori with 1 teaspoon fleur de sel.
3.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, mix together butter, flour, fleur de sel and nori until smooth and creamy.
4.  Mix in the powdered sugar, and then the egg yolk.
5.  Add the olive oil, sesame oil, and flour, and mix until smooth.
6.  Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a log, about 6 inches long.
7.  Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour.
8.  When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Working with one log at a time, slice the cookies 1/4-inch thick.
9.  Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet, leaving some space between them.
10. Sprinkle a couple of grains of fleur de sel over the top of each cookie and bake for 12-14 minutes, until lightly brown around the edges.
11. If you want perfectly round cookies, all the same size, use a small, round cookie cutter to cut immediately when they come out of the oven (you can then nibble on the scraps for a snack).

Storage: The cookies are best the day they’re made, but can be stored overnight in an airtight container. The dough can be chilled for up to 5 days, or frozen for 2 months.

**Note:  For toasting the nori, I followed Mark Bittman's method below, including lightly salting the inside half, and therefore reduced the amount of fleur de sel called for in the cookie dough from 2 teaspoons to 1 teaspoon)

The Crisp Side of Nori, by Mark Bittman

***

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

*Full Disclosure: I am a member of Amazon Affiliates and receive an extremely small commission if you link to Amazon from There's a Newf in My Soup and purchase products from Amazon.

Coronado Concerts in the Park: Mushrooms, Flowers and Weeds

Kai and Hillari hosted our second themed Concert in the Park, pairing mushrooms, flowers and weeds with the music of Wild Child, a Los Angeles based act that successfully mirrors the depth, energy and emotion of The Doors concerts as they were live back in the late 1960's.

All of our dishes featured mushrooms, with the exception of Carmen's raw chocolate mint truffles, which resulted in a fairly healthy evening (if you don't count all the empty bottles of wine). 

Thomas Keller has hooked me again with another one of his amazing salads - this time with blanched broccolini, thinly sliced onions and mushrooms, and oil-cured Italian olives, drizzled with sherry vinaigrette, and served with side of rich and creamy burrata cheese. Keller's big-pot blanching method is the key to bright green, tender-crisp vegetables (see video below). 

Broccolini Salad

John continued with his self-inflicted deviled egg challenge and came up with this artsy creation, rolled in porcini and chanterelle powder, stuffed with a smooth mixture of egg yolks, sauteed miatake mushrooms, herbs, soy sauce, and mascarpone cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar, garnished with beech mushrooms and Parmesan cheese, and perched on a bed of crispy shallots.

John's Mushroom Deviled Eggs

Alec's Mushroom Strudel

Carmen's Wraps

Brad's Mushroom Soup

Carmen's Chocolate Mint Truffles

Max & Kai

Kellee and the Flower Children, Olivia and Sonoma

Olivia and Hillari

Sonoma & Alec

Wild Child's lead singer, Dave Brock

***

Broccolini Salad with Burrata Cheese
From Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home
Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 pounds broccolini
3 large cremini mushrooms, about 2 inches in diameter
1 red onion (I used a red spring onion)
1 cup black Cerignola olives (available at Whole Foods' olive bar)
1/2 cup Sherry Vinaigrette (recipe below)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
One 8-ounce burrata cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
Fleur de sel

Preparation:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (1 cup of Kosher salt to each gallon of water). Prepare an ice bath. Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet and line the rack with paper towels. With a paring knife, cut off the thick ends of the broccolini stalks and peel the remaining stalks. Blanch the broccolini in batches in the boiling water until crisp-tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to the ice bath to stop the cooking, and drain on the paper towels.

Cut off the stems of the mushrooms flush with the caps and discard. Cut the caps into paper-thin slices using a Japanese mandoline or other vegetable slicer or by hand, and transfer to a small bowl.

Cut the onion in half through the equator. Slice one half of the onion into paper-thin rings on the mandoline. Select about 20 of the nicest rings, and reserve the remaining onion for another use.

Cut the flesh of the olives away from the pit. Lay the pieces cut-side-down and cut lengthwise into thin slices.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Line up the broccolini stalks side by side on the parchment paper (this will allow you to dress and season the broccolini evenly), drizzle with about 1/4 cup vinaigrette, and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss the mushroom slices with about 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper (do not overdress the mushrooms).

Cut away the top nub of the burrata and put it in a shallow serving bowl that just holds it. Holding a pair of scissors vertically, snip an X into the top of the burrata, reaching the soft center. Open the top slightly and drizzle olive oil over and around the cheese. Sprinkle with fleur de sel and pepper, and place on a serving platter. Arrange the broccolini, mushrooms, olives, and onions on the platter.

Sherry Vinaigrette: Whisk together 1/4 cup sherry wine vinegar and 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, and then whisk in 1 cup extra virgin olive oil. The vinaigrette should look broken - do not emulsify. Refrigerate in a covered container for up to one month.




Recipes featuring mushrooms

• Saveur
• Bon Appetit 
• Gourmet
• Fine Cooking
• Leite's Culinaria

In Loving Memory - Ch. Wynship's Seabiscuit "Dooley"

“We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle; easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we would still live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan.”

                                                                                                                       ― Irving Townsend

 

In Loving Memory - Ch. Wynship's Seabiscuit "Dooley" from There's a Newf in My Soup! on Vimeo.

French Fridays with Dorie: Lime Honey Beet Salad

I'm sitting here on my couch, on a Friday afternoon, numb, physically and emotionally drained, and unable to cry any more tears at the moment. If you follow us on Facebook, you already know we said goodbye to Dooley, the Newf in My Soup, and the sweetest, most lovable companion you can imagine. It was one of the worst days of my life, sitting on the floor in the vet's office, with John and I both crying uncontrollably, as he was put to sleep. He lived a long, healthy 13+ years, but we could tell he was in pain those last few days, and we were in pain knowing we couldn't do anything more for him.

I took time off from work this week, and considered taking time off from the blog, but cooking and blogging are enjoyable and provide an escape. This week's French Fridays with Dorie Lime and Honey Beet Salad wasn't easy to get through. It's a simple recipe, but I didn't have Dooley with me, sprawled across the kitchen floor. As I prepared the salad, I purposely talked to him like I always did, and explained what I was doing along the way. After dinner, we gave Trapper extra hugs and kisses. Dooley's little half-brother has some big paws to fill, but I think he's up to the challenge.

The beets are roasted, allowed to cool, peeled, cut into wedges and tossed in a vinaigrette of cider vinegar, lime zest and juice, honey, olive oil, and minced chives and dill. Dorie suggests serving them on a bed of lightly dressed arugula and adding a dollop of crème fraîche or sour cream. I omitted the dill and crème fraîche and we enjoyed this salad with a grilled New York steak and corn on the cob.

Dooley and Trapper

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

*Full Disclosure: I am a member of Amazon Affiliates and receive an extremely small commission if you link to Amazon from There's a Newf in My Soup and purchase this fabulous cookbook.

French Fridays with Dorie: Olive Oil Ice Cream and Thin Pear Tart

It was time to get the ice cream bowl out of the cupboard and back in the freezer, so it's ready for impromptu summer ice cream making. One of my favorite cookbooks has a recipe for ice cream sandwiches, with an interesting flavor combination, that I've been wanting to make for the longest time. Now I'm motivated!

Speaking of interesting flavor combinations, I may have gone a bit wild on this week's French Fridays with Dorie Olive Oil Ice Cream. It has potential, but I used a tad bit too much of a certain olive oil in this one. Dorie's recipe calls for milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract and olive oil. She suggests a fruity olive oil, and I had originally planned to go down to Coronado Taste of Oils to choose one of their flavored oils. Until I saw that little bottle of Tartufo in my pantry. I'm not the first one to make white truffle infused olive oil ice cream and, like I said, it has potential. Just don't use 1/2 cup of the stuff. Subsequent reading suggests maybe a tablespoon or two at most.

Thin Pear Tart and White Truffle Olive Oil Ice Cream

I consulted The Flavor Bible to assist me in deciding what to serve with my ice cream.  Eggs, pasta and risotto are the key pairings, but pears and thyme were also listed. Pear tart came to mind and I was able to find a quick and easy recipe by Martha Stewart. There you have it. 

Thin Pear Tart

The truffle aroma and taste was toned down a bit by the pear tart, but it was still overpowering. Maybe I'll just melt down this batch and serve it over pasta.

Martha Stewart's Thin Pear Tart recipe can be found here. I varied the recipe slightly: I used about 1 1/2 Bosc pears, brushed the finished tart with apricot preserves, and sprinkled a few fresh thyme leaves over the top. I didn't sprinkle cinnamon over the top because of the truffle ice cream. Watch the cooking time as it gets crispy brown around the edges.  It was very good and a breeze to throw together.

Trapper and his new toy

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

*Full Disclosure: I am a member of Amazon Affiliates and receive an extremely small commission if you link to Amazon from There's a Newf in My Soup and purchase this fabulous cookbook.

French Fridays with Dorie: Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad (p. 140), featuring  lentils du Puy, preserved lemon, and a can of chunk light tuna packed in oil. The warm lentils are tossed in a vinaigrette of olive oil, red wine vinegar and black olive tapenade. Options include serving the salad chilled or at room temperature, on a bed of greens or plain, and garnished with halved grape tomatoes or a tomato and bell pepper salad.

I had a can of tuna in my basket, but as I rounded the corner to the fish counter and saw fresh albacore, the can went back on the shelf. Seared albacore is one of my sushi bar staples and I knew it would dress up this salad nicely. I tossed in a few handfuls of baby arugula which wilted ever so slightly from the warm lentils, and garnished with a few ripe tomatoes off our sole tomato plant. I didn't have preserved lemon, but I used a little lemon zest in the vinaigrette and a squeeze of juice over the albacore. You can make the tapenade fairly easily, but I went with store-bought.

This is an easy and healthy lunch or dinner salad, and one that I will definitely make again.

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

*Full Disclosure: I am a member of Amazon Affiliates and receive an extremely small commission if you link to Amazon from There's a Newf in My Soup and purchase this fabulous cookbook.

Quality time with Dooley