tomato | Adventures in Thyme

Beefy Lamb Meatball Goodness

April 30, 2014 by Dan Leave a Comment

Meatballs with tomato sauce

Yep, another meatball recipe – they’re just so darn good! And perfectly sized to take to work the next day for lunch. So let’s get to it:

Meatballs

1 lb Ground Sirloin
1 lb Ground Lamb
2 cups Cooked Long Grain Rice (I used brown basmati rice)
2 Eggs
2 sprigs Rosemary, chopped
2 sprigs Oregano, chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1 14.5oz can peeled, chopped Tomatoes

Sauce

5 8oz cans Tomato Sauce
1 sprig Rosemary, chopped
1 sprig Oregano, chopped
1 tablespoon good Balsamic Vinegar
4 tablespoons Honey
2 teaspoons baking soda
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You’ll need two baking dishes (I used a 9” x 13” and a 9” x 9”)

Combine the ground meat, rice, eggs, chopped rosemary and oregano, grated cheese, canned tomatoes (with the juice) salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix together gently using your hands until the ingredients are well mixed.

Form the meat mixture into 2 to 2 ½ inch balls. You should end up with 12 to 14 meatballs. Place the meatballs into your baking dishes so they aren’t crammed together. Place in the oven and back for 30 minutes or until they start to brown on top.

While the meatballs are cooking, make your sauce. Combine the tomato sauce, chopped herbs, balsamic vinegar and honey in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add the baking soda a teaspoon at a time. (This will neutralize the acid in the tomato sauce.) Stir in gently. Once it has stopped foaming, add the second teaspoon and mix it in. Once the sauce is hot, taste and add salt and pepper. Turn down to low and let simmer.

Once the meatballs have started to brown, spoon about half your sauce over the meatballs and return them to the oven. Cook another 20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the meat is 160 degrees.

Serve with the remaining sauce and side dishes of your choice. (We served ours with rice and a vegetable.)

Enjoy!

Shells Casserole

March 12, 2014 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Shells Casserole

I love pasta shells – little boats of yummy goodness that can be filled with mixtures from sweet to savory. Today’s offering welcomes back crispy pancetta bits, and cheese. Does it get any better? Actually it does…

Ingredients:
1 box of jumbo pasta shells
1 lb hamburger
1 container pasta sauce of choice
~5 oz of cooked spinach, drained (you can either use a box of frozen spinach or 1/2 bag of frozen organic, I place it in a bowl and pour a cup of hot water over it to defrost, then squeeze out the liquid later)
~2 cups shredded Mozzarella (vegan mozzarella is pictured above)
~1 cup shredded pecorino or parmesan
1 package of sliced pancetta from the deli (you can normally find this in the fine cheeses area). Dice/chop the pancetta for easy frying.
1/4 tsp cinnamon
~ 1 Tablespoon of olive oil
pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F while you prepare the dish.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook until tender but not completely soft – remember, you’re going to be baking this later! When the pasta is done remove and cool with cold water to stop the cooking process.
3. While the water boils heat olive oil in a skillet and brown the sliced pancetta. Remove pancetta with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel to drain.
4. Add hamburger to fry pan and brown in pancetta oil.
5. Drain hamburger and place in a large bowl, add pancetta, mozzarella, spinach and cinnamon. Mix well. Add salt to taste.
6. In a large baking dish pour ~1 cup of the pasta sauce in the bottom and spread evenly. Then carefully stuff a shell with ~2 tablespoons of hamburger mixture.
7. Pour remaining pasta sauce over the shells when finished. Place in oven and cook until the pasta bubbles and shell tips begin to turn brown (or the cheese is well melted).
8. Serve with crusty bread, a glass of vino, a good movie, the possibilities are endless…

Bruschetta

February 5, 2014 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Cucumber and Tomato Bruschetta

What is it about crunchy bits of bread with a deliciously composed topping? And I use that term loosely – a topper of aged cheddar can also be “composed” when one is fending off the munchies during the commercial break of a really good tv show! Our humble little bruschetta is all about the tomato-cuke salad on the top, world’s greatest dressing-delivery-device ever!

Dressing:

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 cup Olive Oil
2 or 3 teaspoons Honey
Sprig Rosemary
3 or 4 Sprigs Thyme
Salt and Pepper to taste

Chop the herbs and place in a blender with the vinegar and honey. Put the blender’s lid on and remove the hole cover in the middle of the lid. Turn the blender on to a medium speed and slowly drizzle the olive oil into the blender. The oil and vinegar will emulsify giving you a nice, thick dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Salad:

4 or 5 tomatoes
1 cucumber

Peel and seed the cucumber, cut into strips and then cut the strips into about 1/4 inch pieces. Quarter and seed the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes into small pieces about the same size as your cucumber pieces. Place cucumber and tomato into a bowl. Add a little of the dressing and toss gently to coat. Add more dressing if needed. (Save the remaining dressing for another salad or to use as a sauce for steak.)

Bruschetta:

Baguette
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

To make your Bruschetta, take a nice baguette and slice it on a slight diagonal. Brush both sides of each slice with olive oil and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Gently broil the slices of bread until they are lightly toasted (you want some color and texture, not hockey pucks). Now, peal your cloves of garlic and cut them in half. Rub the cut side on the top of your bread. Place the bread on a plate and top with the tomato and cucumber salad. Top with thin pieces of Parmesan or Pecorino cheese (a peeler makes nice thin slices.) Serve.

Oh, and if the salad doesn’t quite stay on the top of your crunchy slices, you can easily spread a little of the leftover dressing on the top so the salad will “stick” better. Who needs leftover dressing anyway?