This is a print preview of "Donatella Arpaia's Mama's Meatballs and Ragu" recipe.

Donatella Arpaia's Mama's Meatballs and Ragu Recipe
by Monte Mathews

I’ve always been a huge fan of Saveur

Magazine and not just because, over the years, they’ve published more of my

food pieces than anyone else. To me, the

magazine broke the mold. The relentless

publication of Celebrity chef’s recipes in every other food magazine separates

Saveur instantly. Saveur has recipes you

don’t find anywhere else. They have a

particular fondness for grandmothers’ cooking whether the grandmother is called

“Opa” or “Ba Noi.” One of the earliest grandmother stories I

can remember was in a 1994 issue of the magazine. A food writer and cooking

teacher, Peggy Knickerbocker, took us into the kitchens of a group of home

cooks in San Francisco’s North Beach. This center of Italian American cooking

was presided over by “Old Stoves”.

One of Saveur's "Old Stoves",

Rose Pistola Ms. Knickerbocker explained:" An "Old

stove" is gentle, complimentary North Beach slang for someone who has put

in a lot of time in front of a lot of stoves in his or her day. Old stoves are

sometimes restaurant chefs, or retired restaurant chefs—but more often they're

simply home cooks, with many years of experience making savory dishes for

themselves, their families, and their friends. Old stoves are renowned

throughout the community for their culinary skills. They're old souls, legends,

well aged and cured. There is not one chance in a million that you'll have a

bad meal at the hands of an old stove.”

Donatella and "Mama" ArpaiaThe story of North

Beach’s Old Stoves went on to give their recipes which all

shared a common thread. Everything they

cooked was simmered for hours, and the ingredients were a little loosey goosey. If they had a chicken neck or a leftover pork

chop, it would find its way into their Sunday ‘gravies’ which were, I was to

discover, a Sunday fixture not just in San Francisco but in Italian American

households all over the country. I

became a collector of these recipes and whenever I see one, I feel compelled to

spend a Sunday afternoon trying to replicate it. This is almost impossible of course because

the preferred quantities tend to be ‘some oregano’ or ‘a handful of

basil’. So I was pleased to see that

even a chef like Donatella Arpaia, admit “no matter how hard I try, I can’t get (her mother's) recipe exactly alike.” But I think

that’s the point.

Rocco and Mama di Spirito Chef Arpaia is a Long

Island girl who gave up her career as a lawyer to launch one in food. For the past 15 years, she’s been racking up

awards from everyone from the James Beard Foundation to New York magazine, which

named her meatballs the best in the city in 2007. Now meatballs are a special fascination of

Meatballs and Ragu”, I was hooked. You

have to be very brave to celebrate your Mother’s meatballs. The last time it was done in New York, Chef

Rocco di Spirito was practically run out of town for featuring his mother’s

recipe at his soon defunct “Rocco’s”. It

seemed that anyone with any remote connection to an Italian American mother

simply did not approve of Mama di Spirito’s version,much preferring their own and having no qualms about saying so. Nevertheless, Donatella

forged ahead and shared her mother’s recipe for their family’s Sunday

dinner. Mama Arpaia's meatballs are flawless. They are pillows of ground beef lightened with Italian bread and egg and flavored with garlic and Parmigiano or Gran Padano cheese. Spareribs and sweet Italian sausage are the meats in the ragu. These start out whole and as the cooking process continues, they slowly break down into the tomatoes. The

result is a pasta sauce so meltingly rich, so tender that it embraces you like

a hug from your Italian grandmother…even if you, like me, never had an Italian

grandmother.

The major lesson here is

one Chef Arpaia shared on her blog: In order to get the full flavor into your

‘gravy’, you can’t rush it. Patience is

essential and turning up the heat cannot compensate for long cooking

times. But you will be richly rewarded

and the praise will lap over you like a Sunday afternoon nap. Here is the recipe:

Recipe for Donatella

Arpaia’s “Mama’s Meatballs and Ragu”

Serves 8-10. Plan on an afternoon of cooking.

turning to moisten evenly. Gently squeeze out excess water.

2. Add

beef, garlic, parsley, egg and ¾ cup of Parmigiano to the bread and combine.

Season with Salt and pepper. Knead the mixture for at least 5 minutes with your

hands, until uniformly combined and smooth.

Pinch

a tablespoon of meat into your palms and shape into a ball. Place on a baking

sheet and continue with the rest of the mixture.

3. Fill

a 10” skillet halfway with canola oil and heat over high heat. When strands

form along the bottom, lower 8-10 meatballs at a time into the oil. Do not

overcrowd. They should be ¾ submerged in oil. Reduce the heat to medium

and fry for 6-7 minutes each side, turning only once. Remove

the meatballs from the oil and turn the heat back up to high before starting

the second batch. 20 minutes before serving,

add the meatballs to the simmering ragu.

4. Make your pasta following

package instructions. When draining the

pasta, set aside 1 cup of pasta water, to thin the gravy if required.