A16's Monday Meatballs

Remember when I went to San Francisco back in September? I had this great lunch at A16 whilst there and I realized I never told you about it. Seriously wonderful. My lunch companion and I shared a plate of burrata dabbed with this amazing chili oil - the recipe is in the cookbook - and then a plate of meatballs that quite literally were the greatest meatballs I've ever eaten. Swear to God. Pillowy and incredibly tender, perfectly seasoned, napped in tomato sauce so good that should be bottled and sold, and all I wanted to eat for the rest of that trip.

Besides the flavor, the consistency is what really drove me nuts. How were they able to hold their shape and still be so soft at the same time?

Divine providence, then, when I realized that a recipe for these very same meatballs was published in the LA Times not a few days before I went to the West Coast. I'm surprised that it took me two whole months to get around to making these - every time I thought about those darn meatballs, my stomach started rumbling. I'm such a dainty girl, aren't I?

Right off the bat, I made a few small changes: first of all, my store had no pork shoulder, so I was forced to buy ground pork loin. Second of all, I left out the pork fat because, well, just because. I didn't know where to buy it and since I had more than 2 ounces of prosciutto at home, I thought I'd sub the prosciutto for the pork fat. Okay? Oh, and instead of whole milk, I used 1%. Alright, that's out of the way. The raw mixture was gorgeous - sort of wobbly and very moist. The fact that the recipe doesn't tell you what to do with the bread is a little maddening, but I improvised: cut off the crusts and cubed the bread rather roughly.

The technique is simply genius. Instead of frying meatballs in a pan and getting spattered oil simply everywhere, you just lay the meatballs on oiled baking sheets and stick them in the oven for half an hour. (Of course, if your oven is in dire need of a cleaning, be prepared for some smoking, but that's neither here nor there, Miss Filth.) Then you take the meatballs, paleish but firmed up, and pack them into a baking dish, drowning them in pureed tomatoes. That dish gets covered tightly with aluminum foil and back into the oven it goes. Meatballs braised in tomato sauce! Are you hungry yet? I just had breakfast and I think I am.

After an hour and a quarter, the sauce looked darkly rusty and set and the meatballs were cooked through. We set the table, put out the grana and a grater and some sliced bread, and got to work.

Well. Hrm. Okay.

The meatballs were fine, a little over-salted (actually, more than a little, even though I used less salt than called for because Ben thinks he's pre-hypertensive and I'd rather not argue about it), but fine. Average. They were not the gloriously puffy, tender specimens I ate in San Francisco, nor was there really enough sauce - the liquid had mostly evaporated (even though I added 1/4 cup of water to the pan, right before putting the pan in the oven, because the tomatoes looked a little dry) and the tomatoes were sort of thick and sticky on top of the meatballs. I wouldn't write home about these meatballs and sort of couldn't wait to move on to salad (more on that tomorrow). I thought about freezing the rest for those emergency nights when you have to eat something but find the idea of cooking painful on the level of sticking a fork in your eye. That kind of fine, if you know what I mean.

Was it my fault? Because I bought ground loin instead of shoulder? Because of the pork fat? Because of the 1% milk? It didn't seem entirely likely, but who knows. I was going to just write here that the chefs probably had some secret restaurant trick that they didn't want to divulge in the cookbook and that the meatballs are one of those things that you simply have to go to San Francisco to try yourself and leave it at that.

Except as I was preparing to write this entry, I noodled around online a bit to see what anyone else had to say and I came across a Food & Wine article about the restaurant from a year and a half ago. Lo and behold, the article also included a recipe for the famous meatballs and it was totally, substantially different from the one I tried. First of all, no beef at all! Just pork, and lean ground at that. Second of all, no pork fat or prosciutto! Just pancetta. Third of all, more bread and with actual directions - namely that it's not meant to be cubed at all! But blitzed into crumbs. Fourth, yes, fourth of all, two whole cans of tomatoes, double the amount of tomatoes I used. And fifth (I kid you not), the meatballs are supposed to braise for Two. Whole. Hours. Not an hour to an hour and a half.

What gives, people? Why is that recipe so different from the one in the cookbook? If I had followed the Food & Wine one, would I be blessed with the gorgeous texture and sauce I so craved? I don't know, nor can I really face the idea of making another 30 meatballs before Thanksgiving. If any of you try the Food & Wine recipe, do let me know, would you?

In the meantime, file this one in the Frustrating Kitchen Experience folder.

Next day update: I went to the bookstore and checked out this recipe in the actual cookbook: the LA Times didn't transcribe the instructions of grinding up the bread, but the instructions are there in the book, so there's that. Also, the meatballs, after a night in the fridge and then heated up in their sauce, (with an extra splash of water or two) are pretty good: the texture is fluffier and I found them quite tasty. The porkiness was much more pronounced, if you're into that sort of thing. We ate them with spaghetti on this second go-around and it was a pretty nice lunch. So maybe not such an entirely frustrating experience after all, but still, I'm going back to the drawing board at some point.

Monday Meatballs
Makes 28 to 30

10 ounces boneless pork shoulder, about 1 1/3 cups ground
10 ounces beef chuck, about 1 1/3 cups ground
6 ounces day-old country bread
2 ounces pork fat, finely chopped
2 ounces prosciutto (4 to 5 slices), chilled in the freezer for 15 minutes and then finely chopped
1 cup loosely packed, fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon kosher salt, divided
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon dried chile flakes
2/3 cup fresh ricotta, drained if necessary (if sitting in whey, drain overnight in cheesecloth)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup whole milk
1 (28-ounce) can San Marzano tomatoes with juice
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Block of grana for grating
Best-quality olive oil for finishing

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat 2 rimmed baking sheets with olive oil. In a large bowl, combine the pork, beef, bread, pork fat, prosciutto, parsley, 2 teaspoons salt, oregano, fennel seeds and chile flakes and mix with your hands just until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the ricotta, eggs and milk just enough to break up any large curds of ricotta. Add the ricotta mixture to the ground meat mixture and mix lightly with your hands just until incorporated. The mixture should feel wet and tacky. Pinch off a small piece, flatten it into a disk, and cook it in a small sauté pan. Taste and adjust the mixture’s seasoning with salt, if needed.

3. Form the mixture into 1 1/2 -inch balls, each weighing about 2 ounces, and place on the prepared baking sheets. You should have about 30 meatballs.

4. Bake, rotating the sheets once from front to back, for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the meatballs are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 300 degrees.

5. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the remaining salt, and then pass the tomatoes and their juices through a food mill fitted with the medium plate. Alternatively, put the entire can of tomatoes and salt in a large bowl, don an apron and squeeze the tomatoes into small pieces with your hands.

6. Pack the meatballs into 1 large roasting pan or 2 smaller roasting pans. Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and braise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the meatballs are tender and have absorbed some of the tomato sauce.

7. Remove the pans from the oven and uncover. Distribute the basil leaves throughout the sauce.

8. For each serving, ladle the meatballs with some of the sauce into a warmed bowl. Grate the grana over the top, drizzle with olive oil to finish and serve immediately.

Comments

[Julie]

Drat. Now you've got me hankering for meatballs, and my desire to roast a turkey is lessening with each moment...

The F&W version got rave reviews from readers. As soon as Turkey Day is through, I'm going to give that one a shot...

[Jesse]

So frustrating! I always wonder about whether chefs really want to share their recipe to the letter, lest we learn all of their tricks and not go out to eat? And if the recipe is only someone's best guess at what the recipe is they should tell you that. Nonetheless, they look super yummy, and maybe the food and wine recipe is the "real" one?

[meg]

I think your swedish meatballs were the best meatballs I've ever made (and eaten). But yeah, you took out a lot of fat from the recipe so maybe that was part of the problem. But braising meatballs is a great idea nonetheless.

[Erin]

Very interesting. I make these all the time using a recipe that was printed years ago in the SF Chronicle. It's different from the one you post in a few major ways and several minor ones (like different amounts of spices). Importantly, the Chron recipe has onion and garlic in the meatballs, and they are cooked through in a "braising liquid" that has a quart of tomatoes, yes, but also stock, wine, basil, etc. It comes out fantastic. I have also baked them till firm and them put them in my regular red sauce, and they're excellent that way, too. But I think a sort of dry sauce that comes from just the one can of tomato would not be so great.
Here's a link to the article with the recipe:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/09/FDGO9B4IL81.DTL&hw=a16+meatballs&sn=002&sc=1000

[Nan]

Along the same line, have you watched an episode on Food Network and then checked the recipe? What they say and do on TV and how the recipe is written are sometimes quite a bit different.

[Heather]

Ooh, I just went down the meatball road a few weeks ago and found myself terribly short of sauce as well! What's up with that? It was painfully obvious from the get-go though, so I just doubled the sauce part of the recipe. I *loved* how they came out, but I am tempted to try your baking method as the frying action is not my favorite thing.... In any event, may you eat meatballs that make you speechless soon!

[Gemma]

And they sounded so promising...

On a side note I always oven cook my lamb or pork burgers in the oven instead of frying just because I never fancy standing over the hob for long in the evening.

[johanna]

well, they look very pretty, at least, your meatballs. and i love the idea of baking them in the oven as they are always so messy on the stove. i am seriously dedicated to the herb meatball recipe in the chez panisse cafe cookbook - check it out.

[johanna]

http://www.foodfit.com/recipes/recipe.asp?rid=128

[merritt]

Oh man, all that build-up for such a disappointing result! Now you definitely have me craving meatballs. I want to try to F&W recipe for dinner tomorrow. Looks delicious.

[Honeybee]

I once read that bread, soaked in tepid milk or water and the mashed finely with a fork was the key to moist and fluff meatballs. Maybe worth a try?

[maggie]

Thanks for posting a less-than-perfect experience; it's reassuring that you have them too. My best friend just went to this restaurant and was raving about it.

[Luisa]

Erin - curiouser and curiouser! How many versions of A16's meatballs ARE there? Hrmph. To be honest, I didn't think that simply dumping a can of tomatoes on top of the meatballs and braising would really work, but it did. Even just that hour in the oven did wonders to the tomatoes, the flavors in the meatballs sort of leached into the sauce.

Johanna - ooh, thanks for pointing that recipe out. Is there anything that Chez Panisse doesn't do right? :)

Merritt - if you make them, report back! The rest of these meatballs are now in the freezer...

Honeybee - that's a good thing to keep in mind. I'm wondering if on the next go-around, I might mix the breadcrumbs into the wet ingredients and then stir that mixture into the herbs and meat. We'll see.

[dylin]

What a bummer that the recipe you used didn't work out! I made these meatballs myself about a year ago from the Food & Wine recipe and they were fantastic (though a bit too salty). A few weeks ago I decided it was time to make these meatballs again, and I had to search back online for the recipe. After comparing the SF Chronicle, LA Times, and Food & Wine I again made the F&W version and again they were excellent. Something must be slightly off with the other version (I think you're correct in pinpointing the trouble as volume of tomatoes and time in the oven). You must give these another go and use the F&W recipe - well worth the effort!!

[Dawn in CA]

I will preface my comment with the caveat that I have not (yet) tried any of the recipes listed in your post or the comments. However, I have to believe the extra braising would make a HUGE difference in the texture. My mom always browned her meatballs and then cooked them in her tomato sauce over low heat -- all. day. long. It literally transformed the texture of the meatballs (and the sausages, too). Plus, the meat was infused with all that glorious tomato flavor, and vice versa. My dad used to say Mom's meatballs and sauce were even better than his Italian grandmother's, and that's saying a lot.

[A Mouse Bouche]

Clearly when you can get around to it, you have to try the other version and do a comparison. I hate to think the perfect meatball is so close within your reach but these imposters have gotten in the way. It's a mystery...

[[eatingclub] vancouver]

Too bad the original try didn't yield the best meatballs ever. Your description at the beginning had me craving those meatballs.

[Cattyinqueens]

Such a bummer that the first recipe and/or substitutions were less than ideal...but I love your commitment to that ideal on subsequent days!

If only my lame-ass students would devote that much effort and engagement to their research projects. (Sigh.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

[marinda S.]

Sorry, but it is the missing fat, that cooks out and darkens the tomato sauce. This is doable in a slow cooker and it keeps the meatballs and sauce moist and loose. Try these meatballs sliced and put on a pizza, a good way to use them up. Slow moist braising will help. Love the site. Thanks for the recipe.

Rindy

[Courtney]

I've never made this recipe, but I can tell you that everytime I make meatballs, even when they are good the first day, the are ALWAYS so much better the next day.

[Jennifer]

Alton Brown's baked meatballs are pretty tasty, too, BTW.

I altered his recipe (for proportions, and for technique) for a party (skipped the spinach, used ground lamb and ground beef, seasoned with cumin and rosemary)

and I got rave reviews. Wish I'd written the details down.

Anyway, isn't experimenting with baked meatballs fun? Baked is SOOOO much easier than fussing over them in a skillet.

I think I'll need to try these.

[Laurie]

Hi Luisa,

Found this post of yours while doing a meatball search (I was looking for Delfina Pizzeria's in SF - my go-to place for pizza). I made the Food & Wine version last night with a few of my own tweaks. I guess I have meatballs in my DNA - my Italian-American mom makes a mean one. Don't tell my mother, but the A16 ones I made last night blow hers away.

I can totally sympathise with the difficulty of writing a meatball recipe. A lot of it is "feel." - getting the moisture balance right and keeping the bread light or else soaking it briefly in milk then squeezing (the ricotta serves this purpose, I believe). The F& W version gets it pretty right.

My version of the F&W A16 recipe earned floridly obscene praise from my friends (SF foodies) that I cannot reprint here.

Okay, from one cook to another: My tweaks/notes for light, pillowy meatballs:

-- fresh bread - used less (about 5 oz - pulsed in food processor). I used an Italian batard.

-- the ground pork/pancetta combo is perfect - i recommend using it

-- eggs - used 2 jumbos instead of 3

-- added a few more spoonfuls of ricotta

(the bread/egg/moisture balance is key - you should start w/ the wet, then add your bread)

-- omit the dried oregano (I rarely use that), pump up the fennel a bit and crush it up in mortar/pestle

-- add some grated pecorino to the meat mixture itself

-- used good san marzano crushed tomatoes & a good few sploshes of wine, which makes a wetter brasing liquid and adds nice depth to the sauce. salt & pepper you sauce right in the can before adding to the meatballs.

-- if you roast the meatballs in a separate tray, make sure to scrape all the nice sticky bits from that pan into your baking dish w/ the sauce.

-- mixing is key - use open hand, like a paddle, in a figure eight/turning motion - the trick is to mix w/out compacting the meat.

-- ditto, when rolling - fast and very light - don't compress too much.

Okay - hope that wasn't too wonky!! I hope you give it a go sometime and get some nice SF vacation memories back.

Happy holidays (and adventures in cooking) to you.