Growing up in Philadelphia, Chef Joey Campanaro was often 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 blue collar and doing what you get, doing a kind of town,” says Campanaro, whose father was a firefighter and whose mother for the school district worked. “It was always like, ‘Go to your grandmother’s house and visit.’ “Usually she makes pasta. I loved it very much. ”
All those years later, the recipes he learned while keeping his grandmother company were the foundation of his cooking philosophy at his New York restaurant Little Owl. This is also what inspired his cookbook Great love cooking.
“She experienced the depression and she was the eldest of five children,” says Campanaro, who also has co-owners of Manhattan restaurants Market Table and The Clam. ‘There were really hard times, but when it came to cooking, that was when she did things for people she loved. And she loved it. ‘
The book devotes an entire chapter to Sunday Supper, beginning with his Sunday Gravy – a recipe he calls his ‘North Star’ of cooking and one he learned from his grandmother. Of course, he also had to include his Gravy Meatball Sliders, an extremely popular dish that was an instant classic when the Little Owl opened in 2006. Campanaro admits the sensational response he received from customers to his total lack of pretension.
I said, do you know what? Let’s make something wonderful that people can eat with their hands, ”he recalls.
He does not deny that the sauce-soaked meatballs also have a bit more going on in terms of taste and texture. Although he has given the recipe a bit of an update over the years, it is still rooted in his early days of learning to cook in the Italian grandmother’s row house kitchen.
Ready for an accident course in great love cooking? Here’s Campanaro’s recipe for Gravy Meatball Sliders and some tips and tricks to make sure it comes out perfect every time.
Although Campanaro’s meatballs contain three types of minced meat – beef, pork and veal – the chef says the result is ‘very light’.
‘Some people’s [meatballs] can be a bit of a brick, ‘says Campanaro. ‘In the restaurant we serve them at the beginning of the meal – it’s an appetizer. So you can have three of these meatballs and not feel bloated, and then you can go ahead and follow and actually have an appetizer. Every time I eat one, I am amazed at how light they are. ”
Campanaro achieves the performance by adding a little water to the mixture of meat, eggs, pecorino cheese, panko breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and fresh parsley. He recommends cooling the raw meatballs before frying – they stick together better and are much easier to maneuver in the pan. It is also essential to fry in batches so that you do not overfill the meatballs of golf ball in the pan. This will ensure that they brown properly.
But before you hand out and fry all your meatballs, you must first fry a small tester to make sure you have the right amount of salt. There is nothing worse than frying them all to realize you had to add a little more seasoning. ‘My grandmother will taste [the meat mixture] raw, ”he says. ‘And it was like, are you not afraid you’re going to get sick? And she’s like, no, not at all. ‘
Although Campanaro finds the trio of meat to be the best meatballs, he says that using one or two of them would also be ‘absolutely delicious’. The breadcrumbs can also be easily exchanged for another type, dry herbs can easily take the place of fresh (use only a little less) and the water, although important, also leaves some room for experimentation.
“One thing that can be delicious is instead of water if you pour some wine into the raw meat mixture,” he says. In addition, he does recommend sticking to the recipe as closely as possible.
If you close your eyes and taste Campanaro’s Sunday sauce, you would swear it contains pork sausage. It does not. This is because the Italian market in Christian Street in Philly was closed one Sunday while her grandmother was making dinner and she could not get the Italian sausage she usually cooked in the sauce.
“She really liked the taste of the sauce,” says Campanaro. ‘And so she thought of it – what is Italian sausage? It’s not just minced pork, but there’s fennel seeds in it. While browning her onions and garlic, she had no sausage, and she put fennel seeds in the sofrito. ‘
He remembers being ‘very impressed’ by her quick thinking, and the smell of the sauce that held at Campanaro on Sunday. “I adopted that from her,” he says. “I actually feel privileged to know that I took this little trick from a 75-year-old woman cooking from the heart.”
To make the sauce, the chef uses the same pan in which the meatballs were cooked, to sift out the excess oil first. After adding the canned whole tomatoes, stir the sauce while it boils down a bit and let it all run through a food factory to get the best consistency. Then he simmers the sauce and the meatballs together for at least four hours. The longer it decreases, the more concentrated the flavor will be.
“You have to be very careful when you stir,” Campanaro says. ‘There is a ring around the pot as the sauce reduces and the water evaporates and sticks to the side. This is to concentrate the flavor, so you need to take it out of the pot and put it back in the sauce. ”
If you notice that you’re missing a bit of gravy, then do just as Campanaro used to do when he came up in kitchens and worked as a dishwasher: ‘I would take a piece of bread and scrape [those bits] from the pot, ”he says. “The chef saw me do one day, and he was like, ‘What are you doing? “I’m like, ‘I hate throwing it away. That’s very good. “
While Campanaro serves the Gravy Meatball Sliders as a trio at the Little Owl on small sandwiches, this is by no means the only way he wants to eat it. “I like it with pasta and with salad,” he says. ‘In the restaurant we make this wonderful Caesar salad and do you know how people want grilled chicken or grilled shrimp? What we will be doing at Little Owl is that we add a meatball. ‘
No matter how you decide to serve it, Camanaro says there is a good chance you will have leftovers. To make the next day just as delicious, reheat the meatballs and sauce in a large pot on low heat for about 20 minutes or until completely warmed up. Then grate pecorino cheese over each meatball and watch it melt.
‘Great love cooking is dedicated to the women who helped me become the person I am today, including my grandmother and my mother, ”says Campanaro. ‘It’s through more than just food, but through life. And how food and comfort food in general can inspire good decisions. ”
Little Owl Gravy Meatballs
* Make 36 meatballs
Meatballs
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb Minced meat
- 1 lb minced pork
- 1 lb Minced veal
- 3 Eggs
- 1 cup Pecorino cheese, finely grated
- 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper, freshly ground
- .25 cup Fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 cup Canola oil
Sauce
INGREDIENTS
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper, freshly ground
- .25 cup olive oil
- 1 Large yellow onion, ends trimmed, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 8 Garlic cloves, broken
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- .5 cup Fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 8 Fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- .5 teaspoon Red pepper flakes (optional)
- 4 28 oz cans Whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 can tin Tomato paste
- 7 cups of water
DIRECTIONS
- Take out two large baking sheets (you do not need to oil them, it is there to hold the meat) and put it close. Also take out a large dish to keep the brown meat.
- To prepare the meatballs: combine the beef, pork, veal, eggs, cold water, the pecorino, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and parsley in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix well and form tightly into 36 golf ball meatballs, about 3 grams each. Pinch your hands and roll it back and forth to make it really smooth and place it on a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
- In the largest shallow pot you own (the one with the maximum amount of surface area so you can brown the meat comfortably – even a large cast iron pan will work) over medium-high heat, add the canola oil. You want to get the oil very hot, but not smoke.
- Remove the meatballs from the fridge and add a large spoon to the pot. Does that meatball immediately start to become crispy on the outside? Well. Your oil is hot enough. Continue with the rest of the meatballs in the pot so that there is enough space between each meatball and work in batches. Reduce heat to medium and cook until dark brown and crusty, 4 to 5 minutes. Turn and cook on the other side until it is also brown and crusty, another 4 to 5 minutes. Overcome any stubborn meatballs that want to stick to the bottom of the pot by sticking a slotted spoon underneath and giving a gentle push. Place the meatballs on the large dish and set aside.
- Discard the canola oil by pouring it into a fine mesh sieve over an empty can. The sieve will catch any brown pieces of meat and the oil will cool in the tin before you pour it – my grandmother and my mother would save a can of tomato from their previous pot of sauce. Use whatever is the best look or craft.
- Set the sieve of pieces of meat aside.
- Heat the olive oil in the same empty pot on medium-high heat until shiny and add the brown pieces of meat, onion, garlic, fennel seeds, 2 tablespoons kosher salt, the parsley and basil, lower the heat to medium and cook until the onions are slightly browned is and everything smells great, about 5 minutes. If you like spicy sauce, now is the time to add the red pepper flakes, if you are using it.
- Open the tomato cans and pour them one by one directly into the pot (it is not necessary to crush the tomatoes; it will be brought through the food factory). Fill one empty tomato can with 1 cup of cold water, turn and pour the tomato water into the second can, turn it over and pour it into the third can, and add the tomato water to the pot plus 6 cups of water. You will have a watery, tomato-like pot with love in front of you.
- Raise the heat to high until it starts to boil, then lower the heat until it simmers.
- Once the sauce is simmering, add the granny style for tomato paste: by opening both the top and bottom of the can and pushing down the top lid to scrape through and stick the sticky paste along the sides of the can catch so that no one is wasted. Carefully catch both metal lids at the bottom so that you do not cut yourself (and it does not fall into the sauce). Cover the pot with the lid slightly open and let it simmer, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the pot from the heat and allow to cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, place a food grinder with the smallest disc and place it over a large, shallow bowl. Start the cooled tomato sauce with an 8 gram ladle in the food grinder and carry it in batches of 8 grams at a time. As it passes through the food grinder, it will look even more watery when the tomato pulp, onions and garlic are sliced together and pureed. Scrape the bottom of the food grinder so that every bit of tomato and herbs get back into the pot. Set aside.
- Use tongs or a slotted spoon to gently lower the meatballs back into the now empty pot, along with the juices collected on the plates while the meat rests. Place the ground tomatoes in the pot and cover the meatballs. Cover the pot with the lid slightly open a notch and let the Sunday sauce simmer, reducing it for at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
Reprint from Great love cooking by Joey Campanaro with permission from Chronicle Books, 2020.