The Two Guys Make Meatballs al Forno from The Mozza Cookbook

It’s here.  Finally, it’s here – The Mozza Cookbook that we’ve been waiting for!  We pre-ordered months ago, and it was released this week.  This is the cookbook by Nancy Silverton which includes recipes for her many amazing dishes served at Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles (co-owned by Mario Batali, among others).  If you know The Two Guys, you know that Pizzeria Mozza is among our Top Five favorite dining destinations (there’s no shortage of the times that we’ve blogged about the place).

There are a number of recipes that we can’t wait to try, but we knew that the first one would be Nancy’s famous Meatballs al Forno.  We have tried to duplicate them (we blogged about it here), and although we felt we came close, we knew it was not exact.  Finally, we get to find out her secret!  We left work early today to pick up the meat from Taylor’s in Sierra Madre (which we think is number one or two in local meat markets in the San Gabriel Valley) and then got down to business.  Let’s go.
Ingredients (per The Mozza Cookbook):

3/4 cup day old, crustless bread
1/4 cup whole milk
1 ½ cups freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
½ large yellow Spanish onion
2/3 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 extra large eggs
4 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tsp pure ground red pepper flakes
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground pork (preferably butt)
1 pound ground veal
6 ½ ounces pancetta, minced
Flour, for dredging
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 quart tomato sauce
1 quart chicken stock
3 dried bay leaves
3 dried arbol chiles
Buttered semolina toast

To be clear – we did make a few substitutions (soy milk instead of cow’s milk; crushed San Marzano tomatoes instead of tomato sauce); and we deleted three items (no black pepper or arbol chile, as we felt there was enough spice with the red pepper; and no egg – always trying to reduce cholesterol).  The following is the preparation per the recipe book (with notes of any modifications).

Chop up the bread and soak in the milk:

This is a clear departure from The Two Guys’ method – we have always soaked the bread in wine.  We were curious how this would alter the taste and texture to which we’ve grown accustomed.  But we figured if this is one of the keys to making meatballs like Nancy serves at Mozza, then we were game!

We then used a small food processor to grate the cheese, mince the onion, garlic, and parsley; then we used a mortar and pestle to smash the red pepper flakes and salt:

Add the drained bread and mix with a fork:

Add the pork and veal and mix well, but don’t pack it together:

This is a notable departure from The Two Guys’ version of meatballs, where we use 2 parts ground sirloin to 1 part ground pork to 1 part ground veal.  Interestingly, there is no sirloin in Nancy’s recipe.

The book instructs to “use the tips of your fingers as if you were playing the piano to combine the ingredients without overworking them, which makes for heavy meatballs.” We definitely did not want heavy.  One of the hallmark’s of Nancy’s meatballs is that they are light and almost fluffy.  (Note that we omitted the egg and black pepper.)

We like Italian superfine flour:

We rolled out the meatballs and dredged them in the flour:

Nancy suggested refrigerating them for at least an hour or overnight.  Apparently, this helps the fat to harden, which in turn means that the meatballs hold their shape better when they ultimately cook.  So into the refrigerator they went.

After an hour, we grabbed the largest All-Clad saute pan we could find and heated up the olive oil, then placed the meatballs in it:

After three minutes, we turned them:

After three more, we added two 28 ounce cans of San Marzano tomatoes:

This is a slight departure from the recipe.  The recipe calls for one quart (which is slightly more than 28 ounces); but we wanted a thicker sauce than they serve at Mozza, so we used two cans.  We then added the called-for one quart of chicken stock:

The recipe called for us to mix the tomato sauce and the stock together before pouring into the saute pan.  We didn’t think it mattered.  The recipe also called for us to remove the meatballs from the pan, wipe out the olive oil, and then return the meatballs to the pan before adding the tomato sauce and stock.  The Two Guys love excellent quality olive oil and the way it adds a certain umph to sauces, so we decided to leave it in, figuring the worst that could happen is that we would skim it off after it baked.

We added the bay leaves (and omitted the chiles):

Nancy suggests an hour braise in a 350 degree oven.  So into a 350 degree oven it went:

After an hour, the house smelled absolutely wonderful:

We skimmed off the charred bits and the excess oil and fat:

Then plated up with a bit of simple bread (just oil and salt, lightly toasted) and roasted Brussels Sprouts:

The verdict: nearly a perfect replica of the meatballs at Mozza, with two critiques – (1) too salty and (2) too spicy.  We are wondering if the cheese that Nancy uses is less salty than the one we used.  Next time around, we will omit the addition of the extra salt. We will also limit the red pepper flakes to two teaspoons.

Mental note that we will also mince the non-meat ingredients even further so that they incorporate better.  We think we figured out the source of the very unique flavor of Nancy’s tomato sauce – it’s the addition of the chicken stock.

Between the four of us, we nearly decimated the entire batch, and we absolutely cannot wait to make this again.

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