Weekend Cooking Plans - Riffing off an Italian Theme
ETA: Meatball recipe and some pictures
No big grocery shopping trips for me this weekend. I DO have to buy milk and yogurt in the next couple of days but NOTHING else.
So, that means I have to go freezer diving for ingredients for my meals for the weekend and the early part of the week ahead. I have no leisure time to let things thaw slowly for today's meal, so I'm doing the "plastic bag with frozen stuff submerged in a big pot of cold water with repeated replacement of the water as it gets very, very cold" thawing technique. :)
I have a bag with 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef in one lump, in the freezer and was too impatient to let the whole thing thaw out, so I'm making a dozen oven baked meatballs with the first pound. Then, I'm adding canned sphaghetti sauce to the baking dish with the meatballs and serving them over fettucine noodles, cause that's what I had in my pantry.
Easy Bake Beef Meatballs over Pasta
Easy Bake Beef Meatballs - serves 4 generously or up to 6
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pounds lean ground beef (drain extra well if using medium)
1/3-1/2 cup ricotta cheese, crumbled
1 large egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp dried onion soup mix
1 tsp dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried Italian herb/seasoning mix
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 pinch (1/8 tsp) crushed red pepper flakes
3-4 cups spaghetti sauce (home made or canned)
For garnish: 1-2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese per person
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Coat an 8x8-inch baking dish with the olive oil with your hand and set aside.
Combine the ground beef, ricotta, egg, bread crumbs, onion soup mix, parsley, Italian herbs, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes in a large mixing bowl and mix with a fork until everything is well incorporated.
Portion the meat mixture roughly into 12 and gently form into to round, golf ball-size meatballs (about 1 1/2 inches). Pack the meatballs snugly into the prepared baking dish, lining them up as evenly as possible
Meatballs ready to be baked - note that I used a larger baking dish than I listed but I had PLANNED to make 1 1/2 pounds worth of meat and already oiled the baking dish. At least this way, the edges of the meatballs got nice and browned, since there was space between them. Since I used medium ground beef, they didn't dry out the way lean ground beef meatballs might have, which is why you want the meatballs to be snug in the baking dish. I also baked at 350 deg F for a longer time, rather than at 450 deg F, which the original recipe stated.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through.
Drain any excess fat carefully from the baking dish.
Spoon a couple of cups of the spaghetti sauce over the meatballs, letting some fall through between if there is enough room. Warm up the rest of the sauce separately to serve over the pasta.
Continue baking for another 15 minutes until the sauce is warm and bubbling a bit.
Serve over cooked pasta, with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.
The rest of the ground beef ... I'm going to make pizza tomorrow. For the meat part of the topping, I'm going to combine the beef with 4 hot Italian sausages which are also defrosting right now. A pound of frozen mozzarella is getting a head start on defrosting at room temperature before I toss the whole thing in the fridge so it can thaw the rest of the way. I have a red pepper in the crisper, which I was going to use for something else, as the veggie portion of the topping for the pizza.
Meat Lovers' Pizza - Seasoned ground beef, hot Italian sausage, red peppers, mozzarella and cheddar cheese. I like it hot so I sprinkle on the Sriracha sauce liberally
I don't have 2 pizza pans of the same shape so I always make one...round
And the other... rectangular
Take your pick ... or grab one of each
Leftover turkey breast, giblet gravy and freshly cooked mashed potatoes on Monday/Tuesday. I also pulled out 4 falafel from the freezer and I have whole wheat pitas and tzatziki to eat them with. And I ran across a package of cooked and frozen wonton tortellini while scrounging in the freezer so I'm thinking of some sort of soup, probably miso/dashi stock based.
Happy eating!!
No big grocery shopping trips for me this weekend. I DO have to buy milk and yogurt in the next couple of days but NOTHING else.
So, that means I have to go freezer diving for ingredients for my meals for the weekend and the early part of the week ahead. I have no leisure time to let things thaw slowly for today's meal, so I'm doing the "plastic bag with frozen stuff submerged in a big pot of cold water with repeated replacement of the water as it gets very, very cold" thawing technique. :)
I have a bag with 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef in one lump, in the freezer and was too impatient to let the whole thing thaw out, so I'm making a dozen oven baked meatballs with the first pound. Then, I'm adding canned sphaghetti sauce to the baking dish with the meatballs and serving them over fettucine noodles, cause that's what I had in my pantry.
Easy Bake Beef Meatballs over Pasta
Easy Bake Beef Meatballs - serves 4 generously or up to 6
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pounds lean ground beef (drain extra well if using medium)
1/3-1/2 cup ricotta cheese, crumbled
1 large egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp dried onion soup mix
1 tsp dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried Italian herb/seasoning mix
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 pinch (1/8 tsp) crushed red pepper flakes
3-4 cups spaghetti sauce (home made or canned)
For garnish: 1-2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese per person
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Coat an 8x8-inch baking dish with the olive oil with your hand and set aside.
Combine the ground beef, ricotta, egg, bread crumbs, onion soup mix, parsley, Italian herbs, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes in a large mixing bowl and mix with a fork until everything is well incorporated.
Portion the meat mixture roughly into 12 and gently form into to round, golf ball-size meatballs (about 1 1/2 inches). Pack the meatballs snugly into the prepared baking dish, lining them up as evenly as possible
Meatballs ready to be baked - note that I used a larger baking dish than I listed but I had PLANNED to make 1 1/2 pounds worth of meat and already oiled the baking dish. At least this way, the edges of the meatballs got nice and browned, since there was space between them. Since I used medium ground beef, they didn't dry out the way lean ground beef meatballs might have, which is why you want the meatballs to be snug in the baking dish. I also baked at 350 deg F for a longer time, rather than at 450 deg F, which the original recipe stated.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through.
Drain any excess fat carefully from the baking dish.
Spoon a couple of cups of the spaghetti sauce over the meatballs, letting some fall through between if there is enough room. Warm up the rest of the sauce separately to serve over the pasta.
Continue baking for another 15 minutes until the sauce is warm and bubbling a bit.
Serve over cooked pasta, with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.
The rest of the ground beef ... I'm going to make pizza tomorrow. For the meat part of the topping, I'm going to combine the beef with 4 hot Italian sausages which are also defrosting right now. A pound of frozen mozzarella is getting a head start on defrosting at room temperature before I toss the whole thing in the fridge so it can thaw the rest of the way. I have a red pepper in the crisper, which I was going to use for something else, as the veggie portion of the topping for the pizza.
Meat Lovers' Pizza - Seasoned ground beef, hot Italian sausage, red peppers, mozzarella and cheddar cheese. I like it hot so I sprinkle on the Sriracha sauce liberally
I don't have 2 pizza pans of the same shape so I always make one...round
And the other... rectangular
Take your pick ... or grab one of each
Leftover turkey breast, giblet gravy and freshly cooked mashed potatoes on Monday/Tuesday. I also pulled out 4 falafel from the freezer and I have whole wheat pitas and tzatziki to eat them with. And I ran across a package of cooked and frozen wonton tortellini while scrounging in the freezer so I'm thinking of some sort of soup, probably miso/dashi stock based.
Happy eating!!