Plenty of tiny meatballs and cheeses/rotem drub
The TV series The Sopranos recently celebrated 25 years (in my opinion, still the best series of all time) and I could not remain indifferent to the celebrations.
Fans of the series know that, like any series that deals with the Italian mafia in the United States, there is a constant preoccupation with food, who is eating what, who ordered what at the restaurant and did you remember to bring gabgol (a type of sausage reminiscent of prosciutto) from the deli before you arrived at the important meeting.
The series is so concerned with cooking that in 2002 a recipe book was released under the title The Sopranos Family Cookbook which supposedly gathers all kinds of recipes that appeared in the series.
I chose to bring one of his recipes, the ziti baked in tomato sauce with cheese and meatballs, it was talked about a lot in the series, especially the comparisons to the ziti of Bobby's late wife in Cleary, which was left in the freezer until there was no choice but to eat it, and to the ziti of Carmela and her friends, which it seems that every time someone In trouble, sick or grieving for someone, some Italian woman appears with a large tray of baked ziti in her hands.
The ceaseless preoccupation with food also gave birth to a cookbook
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I didn't want to spare you the combination of the cheeses and the meat, but yes, in an attempt to shorten the processes a little, I decided to offer a shortcut, because in the original recipe the sauce also requires an investment.
I will teach you a trick that will give you the same successful result.
Let's go over the ingredients for a second.
Ziti refers to short, hollow pasta like tubes.
The best and suitable form for the recipe is
rigatoni
, in the past they used penna in Israel, because it was not possible to get rigatoni, but times have changed and all the big companies that display on the shelves in the local supermarket have regatoni (if you can't find it, I won't be angry if you still use penna)
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rigatoni
Today, every brand that imports pasta to Israel displays such a shape on the shelves/ShutterStock
Passata
- Passata is a lighter and thinner tomato puree that is excellent for tomato sauces of the Italian kitchen (and also as a pizza sauce, from experience). This is the glass bottle weighing 700 grams that always appears on the shelves next to the Italian canned tomatoes.
There are all kinds of companies that offer pasta and even if you read the fine print, you will find that the Israeli brand is actually Italian pasta.
Parmesan
- Buy a real Parmesan slot in a vacuum.
Not grated from Israeli companies in a bag and not one that comes in a container of spices that can be sprinkled with grated.
Ricotta
- any ricotta you find will be good (I came to make it easy, not to send you to special delicatessens) you can heat it a little in the microwave in order to make it easier to spread.
Ground meat
- buy meat for meatballs from the butcher or the meat department in the supermarket, one that is ground before your eyes or on the same day, this is not the place for frozen products.
A pan
- a low saute pan with an oven-proof lid would be perfect, but a pan about its size covered in foil would also do the job.
The meatballs
- look at the pictures, these are tiny meatballs.
The size of cherries.
It's a bit of work, but it's relaxing, put some podcast on your headphones in the meantime.
Come on, let's get started, I promise you that you will get a huge and fragrant pan with baked pasta, bubbly cheese and meatballs that children will love.
Meatballs the size of cherries, don't be lazy to make them this way, the investment is worth it/Rotem Drov
Ingredients:
For meatballs:
half a kilo of ground beef
Half a cup of bread crumbs
egg
2 crushed garlic cloves
Half a cup of grated parmesan
A cup of chopped parsley
Teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon pepper
For the sauce: 1 bottle of pasta
3 cloves of garlic
¼ cup olive oil
A small box of tomato paste
A little salt and pepper to taste
For cheeses:
a cup of grated parmesan
A package of ricotta cheese weighing 250 grams
150 grams of grated mozzarella
For the pasta:
a package of short pasta weighing 500 grams, cooked and filtered (it is possible and desirable to mix with 2 tablespoons of olive oil to prevent sticking)
the mold before baking.
Only that everything will be evenly distributed in the mold/rotem drub
Instructions:
1.
Let's start with the meatballs.
Mix all the ingredients well and form tiny balls the size of cherries.
In a pan with 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil, brown them well and remove.
We will keep aside until assembly (and try not to devour them like that as they are).
2.
We will proceed to the sauce.
Pour the olive oil in the pot, put the garlic and only then turn on the heat.
Allow the garlic to heat up together with the oil (at this time it sharpens its flavor. Until you see tiny bubbles around the garlic) it's time to pour the rest of the ingredients, mix well and let it cook together for about half an hour (the sauce can be prepared first and kept in the refrigerator or freezer) taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
3.
Assemble the pan: spread a little sauce on the bottom of the pan, top it with some pasta, top it with meatballs and sprinkle some cheese in between.
In total, the operation is repeated four more times.
It is advisable to finish with grated mozzarella on top so that it finally browns.
There are no rules here, it's not as strict as lasagna, it's just that everything sits well together and is well mixed.
4.
Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 45 minutes with a lid or foil and another 15 minutes without a lid for the cheese to brown.
Serve hot and preferably open a bottle of good Italian wine if you have one.
More on the same topic:
pasta
Italian food
meatballs
Mac and cheese