Raised in Philadelphia, chef Joey Campanaro used to be found in the kitchen of his grandmother’s house next door.
“I grew up with a big family in South Philly, which is a very busy city and does what you have to do,” says Campanaro, whose father was a fireman and his mother worked for the school district. “It was always like, ‘go to your grandma’s and spend time there’. Normally, she would be making noodles. I really loved it. “
All these years later, the recipes he learned while keeping his grandmother company are the basis of his culinary philosophy at his New York restaurant, Little Owl. It’s also what inspired your cookbook Big Love Cooking.
“She lived through depression and was the oldest of five children,” says Campanaro, who is also a co-owner of Market Table and The Clam restaurants in Manhattan. “There were really tough times, but when it comes to cooking, that’s when she did things for the people she loved. And she loved doing that. “
The book devotes an entire chapter to Sunday Supper, which begins with his Sunday Sauce – a recipe he calls the “North Star” of cooking and which he learned from his grandmother. Of course, he also had to include his meatball sauce sliders, a very popular dish that was an instant classic when Little Owl was launched in 2006. Campanaro credits the sensational response he received from customers to his utter lack of pretense.
“I said, you know what? We are going to do something great for people to eat with their hands ”, he recalls.
He does not deny that sauce-soaked meatballs also have a little more to their taste and texture. Although he has given a small update to the recipe over the years, it is still rooted in his early days when he learned to cook in the kitchen of his Italian grandmother’s semi-detached house.
Ready for an intensive cooking course on great love? Here is Campanaro’s recipe for sauce meatball sliders and some tips and tricks to ensure they always come out perfectly.
Although Campanaro’s meatballs include three types of ground beef – beef, pork and veal – the chef says the result is “very light”.
“Some people [meatballs] it may tend to be a little “brick”, says Campanaro. “In the restaurant, we serve at the beginning of the meal – it’s an aperitif. So, you can eat three of those meatballs and not feel bloated and then go ahead and move on and actually eat a starter. Each time as one, I am struck by how light they are. “
Campanaro achieves this feat by adding a little water to the mixture of meat, eggs, pecorino cheese, panko bread crumbs, salt and pepper and fresh parsley. He recommends cooling raw meatballs before frying them – they will be more tightly knit and much easier to maneuver in the pan. It is also essential to fry in batches, so as not to overload the golf ball-sized meatballs in the skillet. This will ensure that they brown correctly.
But before slicing and rolling all your meatballs, fry a small tester first to make sure it has the right level of salt. There’s nothing worse than frying them all just to realize that you should have added a little more spice. “My grandmother would taste [the meat mixture] raw, ”he says. “And it was like, aren’t you afraid of getting sick? And she’s like, no, not at all. “
Although Campanaro finds that the trio of meats makes the best meatball, he says that using one or two of them would also be “absolutely delicious”. Breadcrumbs can also be easily exchanged for a different type, dried herbs can easily replace fresh ones (use a little less) and water, while important, also leaves some space for experimentation.
“One thing that can be fun is instead of water, if you put some wine in the raw meat mixture,” he says. In addition, however, he recommends following the recipe as closely as possible.
If you close your eyes and taste Campanaro’s Sunday sauce, you’ll swear it contains pork sausage. Is not true. That’s because the Italian market on Christian Street in Philadelphia closed on a Sunday while her grandmother prepared dinner and she didn’t get the Italian sausage she used to cook with the sauce.
“She really loved how the sausage made the sauce taste,” says Campanaro. “And then she thought about it – what is Italian sausage? It is not just ground pork, but also fennel seeds. So, while she was browning the onions and garlic, she had no sausage, so she put fennel seeds right in what is called a suffering.
He remembers being “very impressed” with her quick thinking and the taste of the sauce from that Sunday that stayed with Campanaro. “That was something I adopted from her,” he says. “I feel really privileged to know that I learned this little trick from a 75 year old lady who cooks with her heart.”
To make the sauce, the chef uses the same pan in which the meatballs were cooked, first straining the excess oil. After adding the whole canned tomatoes, you will stir the sauce while cooking a little and then pass it through a food mill to obtain the ideal consistency. He then cooks the sauce and meatballs together for at least four hours. The longer you reduce it, the more concentrated the flavor will be.
“You have to be very careful when moving,” says Campanaro. “There is a ring around the pan as the sauce decreases and the water evaporates and sticks to the side. This concentrates the flavor, so you need to take it out of the pan and put it back in the sauce. “
If you think you miss a little sauce after the fact, just do what Campanaro did when he went into the kitchen and worked as a dishwasher: “I would take a piece of bread and shave [those bits] out of the pan, ”he says. “The chef saw me doing this one day and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘I hate to throw it away. Is so good.'”
While Campanaro serves the Gravy Meatball Sliders as a trio at Little Owl with small rolls, this is far from the only way he likes to eat them. “I love pasta and I love salad”, he says. “In the restaurant we make this incredible Caesar salad and do you know how people want grilled chicken or grilled shrimp? What we’re going to do in Little Owl is add a meatball. “
No matter how you decide to serve them, Camanaro says there is a good chance you will have leftovers. Therefore, to ensure that they taste so good the next day, reheat the meatballs and the sauce in a large saucepan over low heat for about 20 minutes or until they are fully heated. Then, grate the pecorino cheese over each meatball and watch it melt.
“Big Love Cooking it is dedicated to the women who helped me to be the person I am today, including my grandmother and mother, ”says Campanaro. “This is more than just food, but life. And how food and comforting food in general can inspire good decisions. “
Owl sauce meatballs
* Makes 36 meatballs
Meatballs
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb of ground beef
- 1 lb of ground pork
- 1 lb of ground veal
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup pecorino cheese, finely grated
- 1 cup of Panko bread crumbs
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 0.25 cup fresh, finely chopped Italian parsley
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 cup of canola oil
Sauce
INGREDIENTS
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 0.25 cup of olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, trimmed ends, peeled and cut into coarse slices
- 8 crushed garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon of fennel seed
- 0.5 cup fresh, finely chopped parsley
- 8 fresh chopped basil leaves
- .5 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (optional)
- 4 28-ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 6-ounce can of tomato paste
- 7 cups of water
INSTRUCTIONS
- Remove two large baking sheets (there is no need to grease them, they are there to hold the meats) and place them close. Also, take a large serving dish to hold the golden meats.
- To prepare meatballs: In a large bowl, mix beef, pork, veal, eggs, cold water, pecorino, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and parsley. Use your hands to mix well and form 36 meatballs the size of a golf ball, about 85 grams each. Cup your hands and roll them back and forth to really smooth them out and transfer to a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to cool for at least 15 minutes.
- In the largest shallow pan you have (the one with the maximum amount of surface area so you can brown the meat comfortably – even a large cast iron skillet will work) over medium-high heat, add the canola oil. You want to make the oil very hot, but not smoke.
- Remove the meatballs from the refrigerator and use a large slotted spoon to add one to the pan. Does this meatball start to get crispy on the outside? Good. Your oil is hot enough. Continue adding the rest of the meatballs to the pan, leaving ample space between each meatball and working in batches. Lower the heat to medium and cook until they are dark brown and crispy on one side, 4 to 5 minutes. Turn and cook on the other side until it is brown and crispy too, another 4 to 5 minutes. Persuade any stubborn meatball that wants to stick to the bottom of the pan by sliding a slotted spoon under them and giving it a gentle push. Transfer the meatballs to the large platter and set aside.
- Discard canola oil by pouring it into a fine mesh strainer placed over an empty can. The sieve will catch any piece of brown meat and the oil will cool in the can before you throw it away – my grandmother and mother would keep a can of tomatoes from their previous pot of sauce. Use the can or container that is best for you.
- Reserve the sieve of pieces of meat.
- In the same empty pan over medium-high heat, heat the oil until it starts to shine and add the golden pieces of meat, onion, garlic, fennel seed, 2 tablespoons of kosher salt, parsley and basil, turn the heat to medium and cook until the onions are lightly browned and everything smells good, about 5 minutes. If you like your hot sauce, now is the time to add the red pepper flakes, if using.
- Open the tomato cans and pour the contents directly into the pan, one at a time (it is not necessary to crush the tomatoes; they will pass through the food factory). Fill an empty tomato can with 1 cup of cold water, rotate and pour the tomato water into the second can, rotate and pour into the third can, and add the tomato water to the pan plus 6 cups of water. You will have a watery pot of tomato-broth-like love in front of you.
- Increase the heat until it starts to boil, then lower the heat to a boil.
- Once the sauce is boiling, add the tomato paste in grandma’s style: opening the top and bottom of the can and pushing the top lid down to scrape and capture the sticky paste on the sides of the can so that none will be wasted. Carefully take the two metal lids at the bottom so you don’t cut yourself (and they don’t fall into the sauce). Cover the pan with the lid ajar and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool slightly, for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, place a food mill with the smallest disk and place it over a large, shallow bowl. Using an 8-ounce ladle, start transferring the chilled tomato sauce to the food mill and rotate in 8-ounce batches at a time. As it passes through the food mill, it will start to look even more watery as the tomato pulp, onion and garlic are whipped and mashed together. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the food mill so that every bit of tomato and herbs goes back into the pan. Left it aside.
- Using tongs or a slotted spoon, carefully place the meatballs back in the now empty pan along with the juices that have accumulated on the platters while the meats are resting. Transfer the ground tomatoes to the pan, covering the meatballs. Cover the pan with the lid ajar and let the Sunday sauce simmer and reduce for at least 4 hours, stirring gently from time to time.
Reprinted from Big Love Cooking by Joey Campanaro with permission from Chronicle Books, 2020.