Three-Meat Meatballs with Merlot Wine Sauce
Special thanks to Catherine of Food Musings for the food meme tag. I hope there aren’t any rules about a 1-day turnaround after you’ve been tagged, because I’ll need a day or two to do this right. 
But until then…
I hope you all have enjoyed the Italian recipes I have shared from my cooking class at Voila! in Del Mar. Today I have for you the last entrée that I watched chef Nadia Frigeri prepare. Over the last year or two, I’ve been easing into a more meat-oriented lifestyle, so I’m not a meatball expert by any means. But I couldn’t resist these perfectly-prepared little morsels and I’m so glad I tried them. The meatballs were juicy and tender, and the Merlot sauce was a fresh and fruity change from the typical red sauce that you imagine when you think of meatballs.
Three-Meat Meatballs with Merlot Wine Sauce
(Polpettine Al Vino Rosso)
Courtesy of Nadia Frigeri
Serves 6 to 8
½ pound ground veal (or chicken or turkey)
½ pound lean ground beef
½ pound ground pork
1 egg
2-3 slices of bread, soaked in milked and squeezed dry
1 T fresh chopped thyme
2 T chopped parsley
approximately 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ cup olive oil
1 bunch green onions or ½ cup chopped shallots
1 cup broth or more if necessary
2 T butter, at room temperature
1 t cornstarch
½ t beef or veal demi-glace
1 cup Merlot or Chianti wine
In a bowl combine beef, veal, pork, egg, bread, thyme, parsley, and cheese. Season with salt and pepper and mix well to blend ingredients.
In a large skillet or casserole, combine olive oil with onions and sauté 2 minutes. Shape meat mixture into small balls. Add meatballs to skillet and brown lightly all around. Season with salt and pepper and add broth. Cover and cook about 20 minutes. Remove meatballs from skillet, set aside, and keep them warm.
Combine butter, cornstarch, and demi-glace in small bowl. Mix to blend. Add mixture to pan and add wine. Simmer a few minutes or until mixture thickens.
Pour Merlot Wine Sauce over meatballs and serve.
Beth’s Note: Although the recipe’s instructions say to add cheese to the meat mix, Nadia’s written recipe accidentally omits it from the ingredient list. So, I have taken the liberty of adding 1/4 cup of parmesan to the list, as an estimate. Use your best judgment on how much cheese to use. Sorry for any inconvenience!
Buon appetito!
No such rule so do it whenever you feel like it.
I made meatballs last night and they were really good (despite several of them falling apart…guess that’s why making them teeny helps). Yours mention cheese but I didn’t see any in the ingredients — is it Parmesan? And did you make the demi-glace or buy it prepared?
Comment by Catherine — September 21, 2005 @ 8:27 am
Catherine -
Glad to hear I can take a moment to gather my thoughts on the meme!
Thanks for pointing out about the parmesan omission. I went back and added an estimated 1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan. I hope that will be approximately right, but we’ll have to just use our best judgment until Nadia returns from her trip to Italy and I can email her.
About the demi glace… Nadia recommended a demi-glace classic French chicken stock paste by Aromont. She says it’s as good as homemade stock. You can buy it at Voila! or other specialty stores. I haven’t tried this product yet, but I am curious. I’ve heard a few good things about it.
Comment by Beth — September 21, 2005 @ 8:38 am
Mmmm, meatballs with merlot sound divine!
Comment by Sweetnicks — September 21, 2005 @ 9:26 am
Hi Beth!
I would like to invite you to participate in “I Like ‘em Spicy!”, a fortnightly food event, where all participants have to come up with a spicy recipe using the Star Ingredient (which is different every fortnight)!
The rules are simple:
1. The recipe has to use the Star Ingredient as the base of the dish
2. It has to be SPICY!!
3. Dishes can be of any form you can imagine, appetizers, mains, desserts, drinks…whatever you can come up with!
On the 1st and 15th of every month, I will the post the Star Ingredient and you are expected to email your entries to hookedonheat@gmail.com by the next two weeks.
At the end of the two weeks, I will post all the recipes on a special blog built especially for “I Like ‘em Spicy!” so you can all view the fabulous entries!
For further details do drop in “Hooked on Heat”, at www.hookedonheat.blogspot.com and join in on the fun!
- Meena
(www.hookedonheat.blogspot.com)
Comment by Meenakshi — September 21, 2005 @ 7:40 pm
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