Meatball sub, and Aurora vodka pasta
About 10 years ago, when I was still in Japan, I cooked dishes with wines, but variety of wines I used was much narrower than now. Partly because I did not get to try out all kinds of dishes made with variety of wine, except the ones with sake.
Here in the states, I was introduced to all kinds of dishes made with variety of wines and,I really enjoy the flavor. Now I use all kinds of wines and, you will see wide variety of wines at our house. I do not drink, but I do use a lot of wine in my cooking or baking. I like to make dishes with wine because it really enhance the flavor of the dish, and it gives the dish more characteristic.
One of the dish my husband likes is vodka pasta. Have you had it before? It is basically a pasta dish with marinara sauce that has splash of vodka in it.
Recently, I made meatball sub with roasted red pepper marinara sauce. Then, next day, I made vodka pasta. Since it came out good, I thought I would share the recipe with you.
So, how do you make meatball sub with roasted red pepper marinara sauce and Sausage,pepper, onion pasta with Aurora vodka sauce? Here is how.
Meatballs with roasted red pepper marinara sauce..
Meatball sub with roasted red pepper marinara sauce..
<Roasted red pepper marinara sauce>
1. In the wide sauce pan, add 28 oz crushed tomato, 1/2 C pureed roasted red pepper,3 tbs table sugar, and sprinkle dry oregano and mix well and set the heat to simmer
** You can buy a jar of roasted red pepper but, you can make it on your own. It is very easy.
< How to make a roasted red pepper>
1. Set the broiler "High"
2. Line the baking sheet with non stick foil
3. Wash the red pepper and place them on the lined baking sheet
4. Place the baking sheet with red peppers under the broiler and wait till the skin gets blisters. Time to time, rotate the pepper and wait till all sides are with blisters and bubbly, take it out from the oven and toss them into a bowl and seal it with saran.
5. Cool it down a little and when it is at temperature you can handle, uncover the bowl and take the pepper out and peel the skin off, take seed off and cut off the stem.
** After a while in the sealed bowl,your red pepper would be looking like the picture bellow.The picture is before the skin and seed are removed.
Roasted red pepper..
** You can make roasted red pepper with big batch if you prefer, and you can puree them and freeze them in the ice cube tray and pop it out as needed.
** Also,you can keep the roasted red pepper "as is" after skin and seed removed, you can just thaw them and cut to strips to use for your homemade pizza or puree them if you need to get it puree as needed.
<Meatballs>
1. To a bowl, add 80/20 ground beef 1 lb,1 Egg, 1/4 Onion grated, 2 cloves of garlic grated, 1/2C grated Pecorino Romano cheese, about 2tbs Italian Parsley.
** When you go to grocery stores, you will see 80/20, 85/15, 90/10 etc on ground beef label. Do you know what it means?
- 80/20 label means 80% lean meat, and 20% fat, usually from chuck cut.
- 85/15 label means, 85% lean meat, and 15% fat and usually from round cut.
- 90/10 label means 90% lean meat, and 10% fat and usually from sirloin cut.
** Personally,when I make burger or meatball, I usually use 80-20, and if I make chili or something similar, I use 90-10.
** With Pecorino Romano cheese, don't buy pre-grated ones in the container.Buy a block of cheese and grate it as needed. You can keep the cheese in the freezer. My favorite brand of Pecorino Romano cheese is called "Locatelli".
2. Let 1/4C Italian bread crumbs soaked in milk a little and after a while, squeeze the milk out from the bread crumb and add to <1>.
** Secret of my mother's moist meatball are grated onion and milk soaked bread crumb. She uses "Japanese Panko bread crumb" but if she did not have any at home, she uses regular white bread instead.
** You can also make "Panko bread crumb on your own as you have seen in the previous entry titled "People food for thought VIII;Panko bread crumbs ".
3. Mix well and make balls. This should yield about 14 counts of meatballs.
4. Drop the meatballs into the sauce and cook through (about 15-20 minutes).
** For the sub, I have pressed meatball top a little before putting them into the sauce to keep them from rolling off from the sub.
5. While meatball is cooked in the sauce, start preparing the bread.I used semolina bread. Cut it into half length wise and take some bread out from bottom part.
** Digging out/cutting off some bread out from bottom ensure that the sauce would not run off to side, and keep the meatballs in place
6. Place the meatball,pour some sauce over, and put mozzarella cheese and place the bottom of sub onto lined baking sheet (baking sheet with non stick foil on), and put them under the broiler until top of the cheese is melted,bubbly
7. Take out from the oven and place the top and enjoy!
** I served rest of the meatballs in plate with sprinkle of fresh basil on top.
Sausage,pepper, onion pasta with Aurora vodka sauce..
<Sausage,pepper, onion pasta with Aurora vodka sauce>
1. Set the skillet with medium high heat, and split the casing of 1/3 of "Roasted garlic &Herb chicken sausage rope" and add to the skillet by break them up to small bits
** Sausage gives off enough oil and you do not need to add oil to the skillet beforehand
2. Add 1/4 white onion sliced,1/8 red pepper sliced,1/8 Green pepper sliced, 2 cloves of garlic grated, and as the vegetables cook, sprinkle Morton's Nature's Seasons with blue cap
3. Add 12 oz of roasted red pepper marinara sauce to the skillet,1/4 C vodka, and let it be gentle boil for a couple of minutes,and take it off from heat
4. Cook 6 oz wt spaghetti (for 2 adult servings) to al dente,and reserve the pasta water in measuring cup a little
** I figured that roughly 3 oz weight of dry pasta is about one serving. So, if you cook 6 oz wt dry pasta, you will get about 2 servings.
** When you make pasta dish, pour water in the deep pan and let it start first. While water is boiling, you can prepare the vegetables etc and after vegetables etc are done, you can start cooking the pasta.
5. Drain pasta, put the pasta back in to the big pan and, add about 2-3tbs of reserved pasta water, sausage,pepper,onion that were cooked in the skillet, and add 1/8C heavy cream and mix well
6. Grate some Pecorino Romano cheese over the pan and mix and plate them up and grate Pecorino Romano cheese again over the plate and serve
** If you did not have enough leftover roasted red pepper marinara sauce, you can make marinara sauce itself from scratch and use it as substitute.
My marinara sauce is easy.
To the sauce pan, add 32 oz canned crushed tomato, 1-2 tbs of table sugar and sprinkle of dry oregano.
Enjoy!
Here in the states, I was introduced to all kinds of dishes made with variety of wines and,I really enjoy the flavor. Now I use all kinds of wines and, you will see wide variety of wines at our house. I do not drink, but I do use a lot of wine in my cooking or baking. I like to make dishes with wine because it really enhance the flavor of the dish, and it gives the dish more characteristic.
One of the dish my husband likes is vodka pasta. Have you had it before? It is basically a pasta dish with marinara sauce that has splash of vodka in it.
Recently, I made meatball sub with roasted red pepper marinara sauce. Then, next day, I made vodka pasta. Since it came out good, I thought I would share the recipe with you.
So, how do you make meatball sub with roasted red pepper marinara sauce and Sausage,pepper, onion pasta with Aurora vodka sauce? Here is how.
Meatballs with roasted red pepper marinara sauce..
Meatball sub with roasted red pepper marinara sauce..
<Roasted red pepper marinara sauce>
1. In the wide sauce pan, add 28 oz crushed tomato, 1/2 C pureed roasted red pepper,3 tbs table sugar, and sprinkle dry oregano and mix well and set the heat to simmer
** You can buy a jar of roasted red pepper but, you can make it on your own. It is very easy.
< How to make a roasted red pepper>
1. Set the broiler "High"
2. Line the baking sheet with non stick foil
3. Wash the red pepper and place them on the lined baking sheet
4. Place the baking sheet with red peppers under the broiler and wait till the skin gets blisters. Time to time, rotate the pepper and wait till all sides are with blisters and bubbly, take it out from the oven and toss them into a bowl and seal it with saran.
5. Cool it down a little and when it is at temperature you can handle, uncover the bowl and take the pepper out and peel the skin off, take seed off and cut off the stem.
** After a while in the sealed bowl,your red pepper would be looking like the picture bellow.The picture is before the skin and seed are removed.
Roasted red pepper..
** You can make roasted red pepper with big batch if you prefer, and you can puree them and freeze them in the ice cube tray and pop it out as needed.
** Also,you can keep the roasted red pepper "as is" after skin and seed removed, you can just thaw them and cut to strips to use for your homemade pizza or puree them if you need to get it puree as needed.
<Meatballs>
1. To a bowl, add 80/20 ground beef 1 lb,1 Egg, 1/4 Onion grated, 2 cloves of garlic grated, 1/2C grated Pecorino Romano cheese, about 2tbs Italian Parsley.
** When you go to grocery stores, you will see 80/20, 85/15, 90/10 etc on ground beef label. Do you know what it means?
- 80/20 label means 80% lean meat, and 20% fat, usually from chuck cut.
- 85/15 label means, 85% lean meat, and 15% fat and usually from round cut.
- 90/10 label means 90% lean meat, and 10% fat and usually from sirloin cut.
** Personally,when I make burger or meatball, I usually use 80-20, and if I make chili or something similar, I use 90-10.
** With Pecorino Romano cheese, don't buy pre-grated ones in the container.Buy a block of cheese and grate it as needed. You can keep the cheese in the freezer. My favorite brand of Pecorino Romano cheese is called "Locatelli".
2. Let 1/4C Italian bread crumbs soaked in milk a little and after a while, squeeze the milk out from the bread crumb and add to <1>.
** Secret of my mother's moist meatball are grated onion and milk soaked bread crumb. She uses "Japanese Panko bread crumb" but if she did not have any at home, she uses regular white bread instead.
** You can also make "Panko bread crumb on your own as you have seen in the previous entry titled "People food for thought VIII;Panko bread crumbs ".
3. Mix well and make balls. This should yield about 14 counts of meatballs.
4. Drop the meatballs into the sauce and cook through (about 15-20 minutes).
** For the sub, I have pressed meatball top a little before putting them into the sauce to keep them from rolling off from the sub.
5. While meatball is cooked in the sauce, start preparing the bread.I used semolina bread. Cut it into half length wise and take some bread out from bottom part.
** Digging out/cutting off some bread out from bottom ensure that the sauce would not run off to side, and keep the meatballs in place
6. Place the meatball,pour some sauce over, and put mozzarella cheese and place the bottom of sub onto lined baking sheet (baking sheet with non stick foil on), and put them under the broiler until top of the cheese is melted,bubbly
7. Take out from the oven and place the top and enjoy!
** I served rest of the meatballs in plate with sprinkle of fresh basil on top.
Sausage,pepper, onion pasta with Aurora vodka sauce..
<Sausage,pepper, onion pasta with Aurora vodka sauce>
1. Set the skillet with medium high heat, and split the casing of 1/3 of "Roasted garlic &Herb chicken sausage rope" and add to the skillet by break them up to small bits
** Sausage gives off enough oil and you do not need to add oil to the skillet beforehand
2. Add 1/4 white onion sliced,1/8 red pepper sliced,1/8 Green pepper sliced, 2 cloves of garlic grated, and as the vegetables cook, sprinkle Morton's Nature's Seasons with blue cap
3. Add 12 oz of roasted red pepper marinara sauce to the skillet,1/4 C vodka, and let it be gentle boil for a couple of minutes,and take it off from heat
4. Cook 6 oz wt spaghetti (for 2 adult servings) to al dente,and reserve the pasta water in measuring cup a little
** I figured that roughly 3 oz weight of dry pasta is about one serving. So, if you cook 6 oz wt dry pasta, you will get about 2 servings.
** When you make pasta dish, pour water in the deep pan and let it start first. While water is boiling, you can prepare the vegetables etc and after vegetables etc are done, you can start cooking the pasta.
5. Drain pasta, put the pasta back in to the big pan and, add about 2-3tbs of reserved pasta water, sausage,pepper,onion that were cooked in the skillet, and add 1/8C heavy cream and mix well
6. Grate some Pecorino Romano cheese over the pan and mix and plate them up and grate Pecorino Romano cheese again over the plate and serve
** If you did not have enough leftover roasted red pepper marinara sauce, you can make marinara sauce itself from scratch and use it as substitute.
My marinara sauce is easy.
To the sauce pan, add 32 oz canned crushed tomato, 1-2 tbs of table sugar and sprinkle of dry oregano.
Enjoy!
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