At Long Last Meatballs - Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Currants

Adapted from Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food by Jody Williams (Grand Central Life & Style, 2014)

Your favorite tomato sauce, simmering on the stove

¼ cup dried currants
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
¼ cup pine nuts
2 large eggs, beaten
½ pound ground pork
½ pound ground beef
½ small yellow onion, peeled and grated on a medium ribbon Microplane
1 garlic clove, rubbed through a standard Microplane
1 tablespoon freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
A little freshly ground black pepper
½ cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated on a Microplane
2 ounces dried breadcrumbs
Neutral oil for frying (I use grapeseed; olive oil would also work)

Put the currants and sherry vinegar in a small bowl and add a little warm water to soften them. Let soak for 10 minutes, then drain.

Toast the pine nuts in a skillet. I use a 10-inch cast iron pan, which gives me plenty of room to stir them as they toast. They get crunchy as they turn slightly golden—they don’t have to fully color—so take them out just before you think they’re done. Above all, don’t let them burn or you’ll have to start over.

Break the eggs into a large bowl and beat them with a fork. Add the ground pork, ground beef, onion, garlic, parsley, drained currants, toasted pine nuts, nutmeg, salt, pepper, cheese, and breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly with your hands.

Portion the mixture using a 1½-inch scoop to make the meatballs uniform in size. Roll them with your hands; they don’t have to be perfectly round.

Heat about ¼ inch of oil in a large skillet and brown the meatballs on all sides. I use neutral grapeseed oil, but olive oil works well too.

Add the browned meatballs to your simmering tomato sauce and cook for 20 minutes.

Note: Because I make meatballs often and love my own, I surprised myself when I ordered the Sicilian meatballs the first time we ate at Gusto Ristorante on Greenwich Avenue. They were delicious—served in a dark red, savory tomato sauce—and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. A week later, I was back again—and again I ordered the meatballs.

I found out the chef at Gusto was Jody Williams. When she moved from Gusto to Morandi, the meatballs—and I—moved with her. Then, in 2011, she opened a charming café in the West Village called Buvette. When I went, the meatballs weren’t on the menu. HOWEVER, when Buvette, the cookbook, was released, there they were.

The pork and beef are well seasoned and bound together with egg and breadcrumbs. The pine nuts add crunch; the currants bring a gentle sweetness; the vinegar brightens the whole thing. And the sauce pulls it all together. I make these with my own tomato sauce and serve them with pasta, polenta, or crusty bread. You could make a salad, but you don’t need one.

And should you be lucky enough to find yourself at a table at Via Carota at 51 Grove Street in New York City—the delightful gastroteca owned by Jody Williams and her partner, Rita Sodi—order the polpette, the tonnarelli cacio e pepe, and the insalata verde to have what may (probably will) turn out to be the best meal of your life.

P.S. The dark, smooth sauce I had at Gusto has eluded me to this day.