NEVER change grandma's recipe - EVER.

[gmc2003]

gmc2003 - look up Lidia Bastianich / Lidia's Kitchen - and find the word gravy.

Look RS you seem like a nice guy and I really don't want to get into a pi$$ing match about GRAVY or meatballs with you. Your grandmothers food may indeed be the best you've had, but I would have put up my moms or grandmas up against anyone's. My grandmother immigrated from Ireland and wound up in Bay Ridge(Fort Hamilton district). She was friends with some very Italian Italian women(if you catch my drift). So was my mother. They ate many Sunday dinners at their friends houses, and learned how to cook Italian from their hosts. I'm not suggesting that their cooking was the best of the best, but they were taught real authentic Italian cooking. I grew up on that as well as Irish and Norwegian dishes. You can watch You-tube all you want, but when you learn from folks that actually came to America from Italy. I guess I know who I would trust.

Chris

 

[Retired Spook]

Look RS you seem like a nice guy and I really don't want to get into a pi$$ing match about GRAVY or meatballs with you. Your grandmothers food may indeed be the best you've had, but I would have put up my moms or grandmas up against anyone's. My grandmother immigrated from Ireland and wound up in Bay Ridge(Fort Hamilton district). She was friends with some very Italian Italian women(if you catch my drift). So was my mother. They ate many Sunday dinners at their friends houses, and learned how to cook Italian from their hosts. I'm not suggesting that their cooking was the best of the best, but they were taught real authentic Italian cooking. I grew up on that as well as Irish and Norwegian dishes. You can watch You-tube all you want, but when you learn from folks that actually came to America from Italy. I guess I know who I would trust.

Chris

You are the only one here looking for a pissing match trying to rain on my parade with gravy. No reason whatsoever to even inject that into the conversation other than to stir the pot.

It's like calling Chef Boyardee, Italian food...

 

[gmc2003]

You are the only one here looking for a pissing match trying to rain on my parade with gravy. No reason whatsoever to even inject that into the conversation other than to stir the pot.

Jeg ur ute.

Chris

 

[zwiller]

Being a big foodie I've had lots of interesting conversations about italian cooking. Very WIDE range of ideas, ALL of which are passionately considered correct LOL. Main debate usually is about what REAL italian cooking is. Olive Garden apparently is not. This is similar to "chinese" cooking which is nothing like authentic Cantonese. If we really dive deep, I would tell you I like polynesian chinese american cooking. We're talking 50-60's Tiki Bar chinese takeout. For italian, I REALLY like Buca Di Beppo which I would say is Italian American with kitsch twist. Might not be legit but we sure like it.

gmc2003 - look up Lidia Bastianich / Lidia's Kitchen

Oh I remember her. THANKS for that! Printing my heart out now. OMG.

 

[Retired Spook]

Being a big foodie I've had lots of interesting conversations about italian cooking. Very WIDE range of ideas, ALL of which are passionately considered correct LOL. Main debate usually is about what REAL italian cooking is. Olive Garden apparently is not. This is similar to "chinese" cooking which is nothing like authentic Cantonese. If we really dive deep, I would tell you I like polynesian chinese american cooking. We're talking 50-60's Tiki Bar chinese takeout. For italian, I REALLY like Buca Di Beppo which I would say is Italian American with kitsch twist. Might not be legit but we sure like it.


Oh I remember her. THANKS for that! Printing my heart out now. OMG.

I started the thread to vent a little frustration over messing up my meatballs - not to discuss sauce vs. gravy - which everyone in every Italian neighborhood knows will lead to arguments - and that is why they mention it. It is like walking into someone's house and pissing on their sofa and then acting all surprised when they become angry about it.

Lidia is a Master of Italian food - she calls it sauce.

 

[BandCollector]

I only recently learned from my sister, that my grandmother, may she rest in peace, LOVED watching Lidia's Kitchen.

So if we watch Lidia's Kitchen we would learn your grandmother's "secret" recipe for the sauce?

 

[Retired Spook]

So if we watch Lidia's Kitchen we would learn your grandmother's "secret" recipe for the sauce?

You might have missed the subtle humor? I will omit the humor moving forward.

We start with a marinara that is identical to Lidia's marinara. Also, before I became old and decrepit, aside from making the sauce and meatballs entirely from scratch, I made the sausage from scratch too, in natural hog casings..

Lidia's meat sauce (you should definitely try) is good, but we use Chianti and she uses white wine.

PS. If you want to eat something really good, look up Lidia's braciole recipe.

​

 

[Retired Spook]

My sister suggested that I should have sliced the meatballs, heated them up and drizzled a little EVOO on them and put some sauce on top. Wish I spoke to her before I tossed (16) 6-ounce meatballs in the garbage this morning because I would like to have tried that.

But yeah I am a little picky - if something doesn't come out right I will toss it - I have tossed whole briskets while learning how to smoke one, and in the end, I have just never been crazy about smoked brisket.

Someone gave me a $150 gift certificate to Franklin's Barbecue and, I gave it away.

OK back to meatballs...

 

[noboundaries]

Wow. I just checked my meatball recipe and I haven't made them since 5/20/20. Time to fix that.

My Italian grandmother and mother's meatball recipe has been lost to time. My recipe is what I remember seeing them do.

As far as sauce. I was never crazy about the thin sauce they made. Great flavor, but they stretched it too far, making it watery. I was a bad Italian and re-engineered a thicker sauce to my liking once I went to uni. It still takes 3-4+ hours to cook, though. A meat is always included like sausage, meatballs, chicken, or steak. For Christmas, meat is replaced with calamari, shrimp, and scallops.

I've got my menu set up for this week. Meatballs next week!

Ray

Edit: I have two techniques for sauces. One simmers most of the day and is spooned over the pasta or onto the meatball sandwich. The second involves EVOO. chopped/sautéed onions, garlic, tomatoes, and sometimes a splash of red wine and is ready in minutes. Way different flavors that both make great pasta and meatball sandwiches. My mother and grandmother never made the second type.

 

[Retired Spook]

I also prefer a 4-hour simmer / thick sauce. And thank you for reminding me - I have not cooked a steak in sauce for a few years but that is going to change real soon.

Speaking of seafood in sauce, a neighbor who was also a master cook - Mrs. Geraldi - would make lobster fra diavolo at Christmas, and maaaaannnnn oh man was that good. So good that I made a point of buying enough live Maine lobsters for myself and her entire family (her, her husband and her two sons and their wives) to be sure that I would be invited for the Christmas dinner! Mr. & Mrs. G were fantastic, old school people - if they took to a person the person became a part of their family - it was an amazing thing to experience. May they rest in peace.

There is no possible way to get a decent lobster here in Texas (same for calamari or scallops) so I'm going to have to try a shrimp fra diavolo.

Man I miss the good ole days...

Hope you enjoy your meatballs, Sir!

​

 

[BandCollector]

I also prefer a 4-hour simmer / thick sauce. And thank you for reminding me - I have not cooked a steak in sauce for a few years but that is going to change real soon.

Speaking of seafood in sauce, a neighbor who was also a master cook - Mrs. Geraldi - would make lobster fra diavolo at Christmas, and maaaaannnnn oh man was that good. So good that I made a point of buying enough live Maine lobsters for myself and her entire family (her, her husband and her two sons and their wives) to be sure that I would be invited for the Christmas dinner! Mr. & Mrs. G were fantastic, old school people - if they took to a person the person became a part of their family - it was an amazing thing to experience. May they rest in peace.

There is no possible way to get a decent lobster here in Texas (same for calamari or scallops) so I'm going to have to try a shrimp fra diavolo.

Man I miss the good ole days...

Hope you enjoy your meatballs, Sir!

​

Speaking of A Great Seafood Dish. . .It is not authentic Italian. . .But it is authentic Greek American, because I recreated it as you will see from the link below. I buy all of the seafood for it from Aldi Grocery Stores if I don't have the time to get it fresh from Wholey's Fish Market in the "Strip" of down town Pittsburgh. Well anyway give it a try and if you like it perhaps you can share your famous meatball and marinara sauce sandwich recipe with the rest of us.

My philosophy is: If it is considered a secret family recipe and is legitimately delicious, Then that type of secret should be shared with the rest of the world.

Enjoy,

John

Seafood Diablo

Now that I have finally received my first Covid 19 vaccine, the thoughts of traveling again are dancing in my head. Two years ago my wife and I visited her sister in Maryland where we dined at a popular restaurant called Timbuktu near the Baltimore International Airport. I had a pasta dish...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[Retired Spook]

My philosophy is: If it is considered a secret family recipe and is legitimately delicious, Then that type of secret should be shared with the rest of the world.

It was humor.

You can find anything you need to know about Italian food on Lidia's website.

 

[BandCollector]

It was humor.

You can find anything you need to know about Italian food on Lidia's website.

I get it. . .LOL. . .I was just messing with you!

Happy New Year,

John

 

[Retired Spook]

I get it. . .LOL. . .I was just messing with you!

Happy New Year,

John

I'm not taking anything for granted.

Happy new Year to you too.

 

[BandCollector]

I'm not taking anything for granted.

Happy new Year to you too.

Sorry my friend. . .didn't mean to offend you.

John

 

[zwiller]

Edit: I have two techniques for sauces. One simmers most of the day and is spooned over the pasta or onto the meatball sandwich. The second involves EVOO. chopped/sautéed onions, garlic, tomatoes, and sometimes a splash of red wine and is ready in minutes. Way different flavors that both make great pasta and meatball sandwiches. My mother and grandmother never made the second type.

Love these threads. Always manage to glean some good info! Have to comment as I completely agree there are 2 styles of sauce to me as well. All day and short. We prefer the short with a BIG onion flavor.

In my experiments with hot salami/pepperoni I stumbled across calabrian peppers. I think you guys would LOVE it in your diablo/spicy type stuff. Hopefully you can find a jar locally but is on Amazon if not.

 

[HalfSmoked]

It's always interesting to me how threads about recipes seem to get off track and most of the time with some amount of disagreement. Then the first thing someone will do is change the recipe then complain about how it turned out or the taste because they changed the ingredients.

Warren

 

[Retired Spook]

A meat is always included like sausage, meatballs, chicken, or steak....

noboundaries You had me craving a steak with sauce since I read this. Now, it may not be a nice sirloin simmered in sauce for a few hours, but a nice little chuck eye quick seared and then finished cooking in the sauce I made on Sunday, and maaaaaaaaannnnnn was it good!

No watery sauce on my plate - nice thick sauce.

Man that was good! The sauce is wonderful - I could eat it straight!

Thank you for the inspiration, sir!

 

[Central PA Cowboy]

Lesson learned. Now I’m hungry for a meatball hoagie lol.

 

[JLeonard]

Lesson learned. Now I’m hungry for a meatball hoagie lol.

Meatball hoagie, that steak, Ravioli, spaghetti... Heck just bring it all on!

Jim