Main Dish
Tommaso's Lombardy Meatballs in Tomato
Idlewild Wines
132 Plaza Street
Healdsburg, CA 95448
idlewildwines.com
- RECIPE YEAR: 2024
- RECIPE BY: Thomas DeBiase
- YIELD: Serves 120
- PAIRS WELL WITH: Idlewild Barbera
Light and airy from the Mortadella and Turkey and savory and spicy from the Pork Sausage, cheeses and spices. These are a labor of love that I hope your entire family appreciates as much as ours!
Ingredients:
- 6 pounds Turkey ground
- 6 pounds Mild Italian Sausage ground
- 2 pounds Pistachio Mortadella ground
- 8 cups Italian Breadcrumbs
- 1 cup Milk
- 50 cloves Roasted Garlic finely chopped
- 5 tablespoons Fresh Rosemary minced
- 8 tablespoons Fresh Parsley finely chopped
- 3.5 tablespoons Crushed Red Pepper
- 1 tablespoon Nutmeg grated
- 2.5 cups Pecorino grated
- 2.5 cups Parmigiano Reggiano grated
- 10 Eggs beaten
- 6 28 oz cans Tomatoes
- 6 6 oz cans Tomato Paste
- 9 cups Water
- 2 Medium Onions chopped
- 20 cloves Fresh Garlic thinly sliced
- 10 Anchovy Filets diced
- 2 tablespoons Dried Oregano
- 4 Bay Leaves
- 12 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Directions:
Meatballs: Rehydrate the breadcrumbs with the milk and set aside. On a stainless steel preparation surface (or sanitized kitchen countertop), combine all meats, rehydrated bread crumbs, garlic, herbs, spices, cheeses and eggs. Generously season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly until completely combined and all ingredients are evenly dispersed. Measure out 4 ounce meatballs, you will need 24-30 for this recipe and the rest can be frozen. Sauce: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat EVOO until shimmering in a 13-quart saucepan or dutch oven. Sautee onion and sliced garlic until translucent. Add anchovy and sauté for one minute. Add crushed red pepper and saute for an additional minute. Add tomato paste and saute until brick red and starting to stick to the bottom of the pan in a golden brown fond. Add water and dried oregano and stir to combine, scraping up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Individually hand crush tomatoes into the sauce and add all liquid from each can. Bring to a simmer and then cook in the oven with the lid about an inch ajar for 4 hours, removing the pot from the oven every hour on the hour and stirring well, reincorporating all of the oil that has risen to the surface. You will notice that the sauce on the top of the pot is lightly browned, that is what you're looking for! Stir it up and reincorporate everything. This is how you get that slow cooked and deeply savory flavor without burning the bottom of the pot. You will need to repeat this for a total of four hours of cooking time in the oven. During the last hour, brown the meatballs on the stovetop in EVOO. Once all of the meatballs are browned on all sides and the sauce has cooked in the oven for 4 hours, add the browned meat to the sauce, bring back up to a simmer (it will not take long), place the pot back into the oven and cook for an additional 90 minutes. Serve on polenta or with dressed pasta with lots of grated parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano on top!
