At Long Last Meatballs - Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Currants

Adapted from Buvette, The Pleasure of Food by Jody Williams

Because I make meatballs often and love my own, I surprised myself when I ordered the Sicilian meatballs the first time we met friends at Gusto Ristorante on Greenwich Avenue. 

 

A bigger surprise was that they were the best meatballs I had ever eaten. They were about the size of a walnut, a little lumpy, and studded with pine nuts and currants, and there were eight of them bathed in a dark, smooth sauce. At the waiter’s recommendation, I ordered the house-made tonnarelli with pecorino cheese and black pepper, cacio e pepe, to eat with them. The chewy, square-shaped, salty, cheesy pasta was the perfect counterpoint to the meatballs – sweet in one bite, savory in the next. 

I Googled around and found out that the meatballs were originally made at Gusto’s by the chef Jody Williams, who by then had moved on to Morandi, taking her meatballs with her. So I had two places to eat them and try to figure exactly what was in them. I started experimenting around and came up with some pretty good meatballs, but none of them held a candle to the original.

Then, Jody Williams opened Buvette, her jewel-box of a restaurant on Grove Street in the West Village. The first time I went there, I was disappointed not to find meatballs on the menu, but the waiter told me Jody Williams was working on a cookbook. And when the book, Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food,  was released, there it was on Page 194 - the recipe for THE meatballs. Fast forward. Jody Williams and her wife, Rita Sodi, are the chef-owners of Via Carota, arguably the best Italian restaurant in NYC. So if you're willing to wait on line at lunch or dinner, you can - and should - go, and when you are there, have these delicious meatballs. And even though the meatball recipe isn't in it, the Via Carota cookbook has lots of good things for you to make in it too. 

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

At Long Last Meatballs (Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Currants)

Adadpted from Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food by Jody Williams

Your favorite tomato sauce simmering on the stove

1/4  cup dried currants

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 small yellow onion, peeled and grated on a medium ribbon Microplane

1 garlic clove, rubbbed through a regular Microplane

1 tablespoon freshly-chopped flat leaf parsley

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoons salt

A little freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese grated on a Microplane

2 ounces dried breadcrumbs 

Neutral oil for frying - I use grapeseed (Olive oil would be good too.)

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 on top of the stove. I use a 10-inch cast iron skillet, which gives me plenty of room to stir them as they toast. They get crunchy as they turn slightly golden - they do not have to actually color - so take them out a little before you think you should. Above all, do not let them burn, or you will have to start over.

Break the eggs into a large bowl, and beat with a fork. Then add all of the ground meat, the onion, garlic, parsley, the drained currants, toasted pine nuts, nutmeg, salt, pepper, cheese, and breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly with your hands.

Portion this mixture into meatballs using a 1-1/2 inch scoop to make them all the same size. Roll them with your hands, but they do not have to be perfectly round. Heat about 1/4-inch of a oil in a large skillet, and brown the meatballs on all sides.  I like to use neutral grapeseed oil, to cook the meatballs, but olive oil would work well too. Add to your simmering tomato sauce, and cook for 20 minutes.

Microplane Medium Ribbon Grater.
 This works in both directions.
I use to grate onions.