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By Manos Angelakis
I wanted to try to make my mother’s recipe for Smyrna-Style Soutzoukakia (meatballs) for a while; a special recipe of hers I always considered a treat when growing up. The recipe calls for a blend of beef and pork, and it is very rare that I purchase ground pork at my local supermarket.
But, we were recently introduced to the Johnsonville brand of All Natural Italian Ground Sausage that comes in 1 lb. sweet, mild, or hot packages. Barbara used a blend of the sweet and hot versions to make Lasagna from scratch, and we liked that dish very much.
I decided to make the Soutzoukakia with the mild version, because paprika is already mixed in the ground meat. The resulting dish was excellent, flavorful and the taste was exactly as I remember it.
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork (I used 1 1lb. package of mild Johnsonville All Natural Italian Sausage)
¾ cup white bread, crust cut off
1 raw egg yolk
4 or 5 garlic cloves passed through a garlic press or smashed and minced
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Generous pinch of paprika and/or Turkish Sumac powder (found in Middle Eastern Groceries)*
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour for coating meatballs
Blend of olive oil and clarified butter for frying.
For the sauce:
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 heaping tablespoon of tomato purée
¾ cup water
1 cup dry white wine
Method:
Place thinly ground meat in a bowl (two passes through a grinder are needed if you grind your own). Cut the crusts off the bread and discard, then wet the bread in water. Squeeze any extra water off the bread and mix the bread with the meat. Add egg yolk and spices to the mix and kneed ingredients together. Make individual meatballs, approximately the size of a large walnut. Roll the meatballs in flour to coat.
Heat blend of olive oil and clarified butter and fry the meatballs to brown on all sides. Remove browned meatballs to a plate.
To make the sauce:
Mix ½ the tomato paste with ¾ cup of water.
In the hot oil/butter blend the meatballs were fried, add the onion and sauté until it starts turning transparent. Pull onion on one side and add the ½ remaining tomato paste. Cook until the bottom of the paste turns very dark. Add the tomato paste/water mixture and the wine, mix all ingredients well, and boil for 5 minutes.
Lower the temperature to a simmer and add the meatballs to the sauce. Simmer for 7 to 9 minutes.
Serve as meze (Greek tapa) or over white rice.
* If you use the mild Johnsonville Italian Sausage, you can omit the paprika as the sausage already has that ingredient. If you have access to sumac, add it for more flavor.
© December 2007 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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