Polpette alla Napoletana

The weather today was sooo nice that I had to go outside for a jog along the lakeshore. Not surprisingly, it seemed like every other person in the city had the same idea. It was crowded on the pathway but manageable. When I got home, Zack was listening to some loud music and washing dishes. He already had an idea for dinner... spaghetti and meatballs. He even looked up the recipe for meatballs or "Polpette alla Napoletana" from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home.

I took a quick shower and we headed out the door to Treasure Island. We bought some ingredients for the meatballs and the tomato sauce, but we forgot to get spaghetti! No big deal... we just used rigatoni instead. It turns out from reading Wikipedia (entry for spaghetti under preparation) that spaghetti with meatballs isn't a common dish in Italy. While Zack made the tomato sauce, I made the meatballs. I just threw some ground beef, eggs, day-old bread soaked in water and then drained of excess water, chopped parsley, grated pecorino romano, garlic, toasted pine nuts, salt and pepper in a giant bowl and mixed it well. After forming them into balls, I threw them into very hot oil and pan-ried them.

Alright. So, it wasn't as simple as that. First of all, I toasted the pine nuts too long in the oven so they were a few stages past lightly toasted. I also made the meatballs too big so that I wasn't able to cook the first batch all the way through without first burning the outside. I remedied this by flattening the meatballs a little for the next batches. The meatballs were surprisingly soft and I kept damaging them with my tongs. Of course, I was too stubborn to use a more appropriate tool after having used the tongs already.

Here it is... Rigatoni alla Pomodoro con Polpette alla Napoletana. The meatballs were simply divine. I loved the added texture and flavor of the pine nuts (despite the minor toasting problem). The meatballs were light and soft yet very filling. This is a hearty meal for sure.