Leftover Corner: Meatball Pizza

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you meatballs, well... I think you can see where I'm going with this. You'll want to refer back to a couple recipes to get you where you need to be:

http://thebagourmet.blogspot.com/2010/11/tomato-sauce-v20.html

http://thebagourmet.blogspot.com/2010/11/turkey-meatballs.html

Even if you got your sauce and meatballs from another source--a restaurant, your mother, etc.--it's so easy to turn these supplies into a pizza, there's really no reason not to.

Ingredients:

2-4 Leftover Meatballs

Leftover Tomato Sauce

1 Pizza Crust

1/2 Onion

Shredded Cheese

Steps/Analysis:

To start things off, you'll want to preheat your oven to 415 degrees and get out a baking sheet or pizza stone, if you're fortunate enough to own one.

Lay out your crust and ladle on enough sauce to reach the outer crust. Sprinkle a healthy layer of cheese on top. I think you'll find that your local supermarket carries "Pizza" or "Italian" blends of shredded cheese, which I highly recommend. It'll usually be some combination of mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan: perfect pizza building materials.

Next, cut your onion into thin slices and scatter them around on your pie. Do the same with your meatballs.

Finally, pop that bad boy into the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and a little brown around the edges. Remember, there's nothing raw here, so you're warming, not cooking.

Notes/Suggestions:

A simple recipe, perfect for the single man or anyone looking for a quick meal after a long day. Can't go wrong with additional parmesan or red pepper flakes.

Leftover Corner: Spaghetti and Meatballs to Italian Burrito

I don't quite know what got into me this week. I've had a lone tortilla in the refrigerator for a while now, quietly mocking me and my lack of beans, rice, or any other Mexican fare, so that might have something to do with it.

Maybe I felt like channeling my inner child and playing with my food. Maybe I've lost my marbles. You be the judge.

I humbly present, for your approval, the Italian Burrito.

Ingredients:

1 Large Tortilla

Leftover Tomato Sauce

2 Leftover Meat Balls

1 Small Handful of Spaghetti

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Steps/Analysis:

First, get a pot of water boiling over High heat. Salt the water and add the spaghetti. Try to remember that cooked pasta always looks like more than when it was stiff and dry. This is going to be crucial when you try to fit it into a tortilla.

As the spaghetti cooks, break out your leftovers! Cut up two meatballs into bite-size pieces and set them aside.

If you have a George Foreman grill, as I do, or a panini press, you'll want to warm it up now. If not, you'll have to experiment with a pan on the stove top as we go along.

Now that I think about it, the oven might work as well, on very low heat.

At any rate, once your pasta is done, drain it as thoroughly as possible and return it to the pot. It's residual heat is going to help dry the pasta as well, which is very important to the integrity of the tortilla.

Add a few spoonfuls of leftover sauce to the pasta and stir to coat.

Get your tortilla out and prepare it with a thin layer of mozzarella cheese. Next, situate the spaghetti in the tortilla's center. Arrange the meatballs on top and spoon on a little more tomato sauce. Sprinkle a little more cheese over everything.

Wrap the tortilla as well as you can. Unfortunately, I cooked a little too much spaghetti and could not tuck in my ends--as you'll see in my pictures. That means I had to be a little more careful in placing it on the Foreman.

Serving/Notes:

Because my wrapping was a little untidy, I attached this beast with a fork and knife at first. Surprisingly, though, as I ate, I found that it was possible to pick the Italian Burrito up and eat it as I had originally intended.

My goodness, the tortilla is a marvelous thing, isn't it?

As far as taste is concerned, this isn't all that different from eating spaghetti and meatballs in the more conventional way. It is, however, a lot more fun, I think. In that respect, this was a worthwhile little experiment.

Turkey Meatballs

What's the point of having tomato sauce if you don't know how to make meatballs? Seriously. Pasta's nice, but you need a little protein to go with your carbs, don't you?

It's surprisingly easy to make a good meatball. You really only need three ingredients, so there's no reason not to make them. Well, besides the icky feeling of raw meat squishing between your fingers, but to that, I say, "grow up."

Alright? Alright. Let's make some meatballs.

Ingredients:

1 lb of Ground Turkey

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs (Italian Seasoning flavored, preferably)

Olive Oil

Steps/Analysis:

First thing's first: you'll probably want to get a pot of tomato sauce on the stove. If it's my homemade recipe from last week, awesome. If it's store-bought, well, I'll just turn my head while your crack open the jar. Put the sauce on Low heat and let it start to simmer.

Next, you're going to need a really big bowl. Really big. Trust me.

When you've found your massive bowl, dump in the ground turkey. Follow that up with the eggs and bread crumbs.

Now, it's time to get your hands dirty. Get in touch with your inner, mud-pie-making child and mix everything up really well. The more consistent the mixture, the better.

At this point, you should get a pan on the stove and let it warm up over Medium heat. You'll also want a relatively large plate on which to deposit your meatballs.

Gather up a small handful of meat and roll between your palms into a nice, little globe and set it aside on the plate. Repeat this process until you're out of meat. Depending on the size of your balls, you'll probably get 14-18 by the time you're done.

Add a little olive oil to the pan and carefully shift your meatballs from plate to pan. Don't overcrowd the pan. You may need to do this in more than one batch.

As the meatballs start to brown, roll them over with a spoon. Keep doing this until the entire surface is just a little crispy and the meatballs are cooked through the center, or at least most of the way there.

Move the meatballs into the simmering sauce and let the pot sit on the stove for about an hour or so. That'll give all the flavors a chance to meld and mellow and let the meatballs finish cooking, on the off chance that they're a little underdone.

Serving/Notes:

I was really pleased with this first attempt at meatballs. They were firm and flavorful and starting them off in the pan gives them a little crunch that they wouldn't have otherwise.

If you pair this recipe up with my updated tomato sauce, you'll have leftovers for weeks too, which is nice. Either that, or you can have a big pasta-and-meatball party!

Leftover Corner: Sauce to Stromboli

One of the easiest ways to make a meal appear out of thin air is to creatively use leftovers. As a cook, I love to cheat. I have no qualms about taking something already prepared (usually by my mother), adding a few ingredients, and making an entirely new dinner. I imagine that one day I'll be repurposing myown leftovers, but for the time being, it makes perfect sense to use whatever I can get my hands on. In that spirit, I'm proud to introduce a new segment (thread? theme?) on The B.A. Gourmet: Leftover Corner!

You don't have to eat spaghetti and meatballs three nights in a row just because you have a big pot of sauce in your fridge. With a little dough, you can easily turn that into strombolis! For those who haven't been fortunate enough to have a background in fine Italian eatables, a stromboli is similar to a calzone, kind of an Italian turnover - a rolled, hot sandwich.

Ingredients:

1 Pot of Leftover Sauce and Meatballs

2 Packages of Pre-made Pizza Dough

Grated Mozzerella Cheese

Sliced Pepperoni

Sliced Olives

Steps/Analysis:

You'll want to lay everything out ahead of time. The fewer moves you make, the better your strombolis will hold up. Find some counter space and dust it with flour. Next to that area, you'll want to lay out a baking sheet or pizza stone.

Unwrap your first package of pizza dough and flour up your hands and a rolling pin. Starting in the center of the dough, roll outward. Rotate the dough as necessary; you're aiming for a long, roughly rectangular shape.

I decided to make one pepperoni and one meatball stromboli, but you could take the same basic idea and make limitless versions and combinations.

For the first stromboli, ladle on a layer of sauce and then sprinkle on a generous amount cheese. Put a layer of pepperoni and olive slices on top of that. At this point, tuck in the ends and roll the stromboli. Smooth down the seam as well as you can and then place that side down on your sheet or stone.

The construction of the meatball stromboli is very similar. Instead of pepperoni, cut up as many meatballs as you need to fill your roll. I prefer to add the cheese on top of the meatballs, instead of between them and the sauce; that seems to hold everything together better.

Make sure each stromboli has enough room to expand and leak a little (it's inevitable) and place them in a 350 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serving:

Let the strombolis sit around for a few minutes before eating. The insides need to settle down and stabilize. Otherwise, they'll run out in a lava flow when you cut the strombolis into manageable pieces.

As long as you're careful assembling everything, it's very difficult to go wrong with this recipe.