This recipe by Campanile’s Mark Peel helped change my view on meatballs: By using a mixture of three different kinds of meats, he manages to create the most tender and light meatballs I’ve tasted. The sauce isn’t your average bland marinara either. The flavour of the olive oil and the freshness of the basil make for a bright and tangy tomato sauce that tastes like it has been made from fresh tomatoes. This recipe does take a while to make, but is a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon, especially if you have a good glass of wine in your hand. The meatballs and sauce freeze really well for up to 1 month too if you needed an added incentive. This recipe makes enough spaghetti and meatballs for 8 very generous dinners at $2.56 per serving.

Spaghetti and Meatballs, from Mark Peel’s New Classic Family Dinners
For the Sauce:
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, halved and thinly sliced
3 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
about 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
about 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 large fresh basil sprigs, plus 1/2 cup leaves

For the Meatballs:
about 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces mushrooms, chopped
2 teaspoons cracked fennel seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
About 2/3 cup cold dry white wine, divided
4 ounces crusty bread, crusts removed, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
3/4 pound cold ground pork
3/4 pound cold ground turkey, dark meat
3/4 pound cold ground beef
2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 pounds spaghetti
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

To make the sauce, get a 5- to 6-quart pan and cook the oil and garlic over medium-low heat until the garlic softens, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover the sauce and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer it, stirring often, until thick, 45 minutes to 1 hour. If needed, crush the tomatoes with a spoon to break them up. Stir in the basil sprigs and then turn off the heat.

While the sauce is cooking, make the meatballs by heating 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Add the mushrooms, fennel, salt, and pepper. Cook everything until the mushrooms are tender, 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 cup wine and the bread crumbs until the liquid is absorbed.

Transfer this mixture to a food processor and pulse to finely chop. Scrape everything into a bowl and let it cool. When it has cooled down, add the parsley, meats, and 1/3 cup wine and mix everything together until well blended, 1 to 2 minutes.

Using wet hands, shape the meat into 1 1/2-inch balls. Be sure to use both hands and firmly press the meatballs into shape so they won’t fall apart later. Heat 2 large frying pans over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil in each. Brown about a third of the meatballs in each pan, turning once and adding more oil if needed, 6 to 8 minutes per batch. With a slotted spatula, transfer the meatballs to a platter. Repeat with the remaining meatballs and oil.

Scrape all the meat drippings from the pans into 1 pan. Whisk in the flour, then cook it over medium heat until bubbling, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in 2 cups of sauce to loosen up the browned bits then scrape everything into the pan with the rest of the sauce and stir.

Return the sauce to a simmer. Gently stir in the meatballs; simmer, covered, until the flavors are blended, about 20 minutes. Discard the basil sprigs, and cut the remaining basil leaves into fine slivers and stir into the sauce. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti according to the packet directions. Drain the pasta and serve by topping with meatballs and tomato sauce with lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

My sister and 2 nieces have extended their stay in Texas by a week since the farm where they live in Scotland is snowed in and a few of the pipes in their house have burst so they have no water or heating. Hopefully my brother-in-law who left to go back to Scotland yesterday will get the house warm for them when they return next week.

I now feel a little guilty about complaining that it was freezing in Vegas on Friday because it was in the 50s and grey outside. Although it did give me an excuse to wear my Longhorn snuggie all day and lounge on the couch. I think our matching snuggies just might have been the best present we got for Christmas–thanks Mum!

Anyway, freezing days (whether they are real or imagined as in my case) require something slow cooked on the oven as a way to warm the soul, both literally and metaphorically. This Italian Pot Roast recipe cooks for a few hours, but is perfect dinner to make on a cold day. This recipe makes enough for 8 dinners at $2.34 per serving.

Italian Pot Roast, adapted from Simply Recipes
3 1/2 to 4 pound rump or chuck beef roast
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 1/2 cups red onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage
3 cups medium-bodied Italian red wine
1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes, put through a food mill to remove the seeds

Trim any extra fat from the roast and pat it dry with paper towels so you can nicely brown the meat, and then generously season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over a medium-high heat, and when the oil is hot, add the roast and brown it on all sides. Once it is nicely browned, transfer the meat to a platter.

Reduce the heat to medium and then add the carrots, celery, and onions. Cook the vegetables while stirring occasionally until they are golden brown and begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, around 10-12 minutes. Add the garlic, parsley, and sage, and cook them for about 1 minute. Deglaze the pan by adding 1 cup of the wine and stirring until most of the wine evaporates and coats the veggies. Return the meat to the pan and baste it with the veggie sauce.

Increase the heat to high and add the remaining wine, bay leaf, and tomatoes, and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Let the roast simmer, turning and basting the meat every half hour, until the meat is very tender, around 3 to 4 hours. Once the meat is cooked, turn off the heat and let the roast sit in its juices for an hour.

If you don’t want to cook the meat on the stove, you can also cook it in the oven at 300¬?F while turning and basting the roast every hour. I’m sure you could also put the roast in a slow cooker too after browning the meat and sauteing the veggies.

Remove the meat from the pot and cover it loosely with some foil. If the sauce is too think, quickly bring the sauce to a boil and then lower the heat and let it simmer to thicken it up. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Cut the meat into thick slices and serve covered in the sauce. We ate our pot roast with some potato puree and brussels sprouts, which were the perfect accompaniments.

I had found some really great beef stew meat on sale at Whole Foods last week, so I spent all week trying to figure out what to make with it. I eventually decided on Jaime Oliver’s Beef, Guinness, and Cheese Pie because we have been largely eating vegetarian and healthy lately, so I was really craving something meaty, cheesy, and topped in puff pastry!

I had quickly glanced over the recipe in the morning to see how long it would take and whether I needed to start stewing the beef before I went on a job interview in the afternoon. I decided that this wasn’t necessary and that I had more than enough time when I got home to make the pie.

Fast forward to 6 pm when I start making the pie and notice that it takes 2 1/2 hours to braise the meat and then an additional 45 minutes after that to cook the pie. D’oh! Thankfully Carlo brought home a baguette and some cheese so we could have a snack while we waited for the pie to cook. Even though we ended up eating around 10 pm, the pie was excellent with a light crispy topping and a thick stewy filling. In fact, it even tasted good reheated last night and played its role as comfort food superbly after I learned that I didn’t get the job after all.

I highly recommend this pie as a tasty fall treat, but do yourself a favour and stew the meat during the afternoon before you make the pie, or even make the filling the night before. This Beef, Guinness, and Cheese Pie makes enough for 6 large dinners at $3.17 per serving.

Beef, Guinness, and Cheese Pie, adapted from Jaime Oliver
olive oil
3 medium red onions, peeled and chopped
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 ounce butter
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
8 mushrooms, peeled and sliced
2 1/4 pounds stewing beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 can of Guinness
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour
6 ounces freshly grated aged Cheddar cheese
1 pound frozen puff pastry, defrosted (you could halve this if you want to lighten the dish a little)
1 large egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375¬?F. In a large Dutch oven, heat up some olive oil over a low heat. Add the chopped onions and gently fry them for about 10 minutes without adding too much colour. Turn up the heat to medium, and add the garlic, butter, carrots, celery, and mushrooms. Mix everything together before stirring in the beef, rosemary,¬† salt, and pepper.

Let everything cook for a few minutes and pour in the Guinness. Stir in the flour and add just enough water to the pot so that all of the meat is covered. Bring the dish to a simmer, then put the cover on the pan and place it in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours. After this initial cooking period, take out the pan and stir the stew. Then put the dish back in the oven for 1 additional hour, or until the meat is very tender.

If when you take the stew out of the oven after 2 1/2 hours of cooking the stew is quite liquid-y, place the pot on the stove and let the sauce reduce. Once the stew is at a nice thickness, stir in half of the grated cheese and season to taste.

Take both sheets of the defrosted puff pastry and roll them out together with a floured rolling pin on a dusted surface to form a sheet of pastry that will cover the top of your dish. Pour the stew into a large baking dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Roll the sheet of puff pastry over the top of the dish and fold the overhanging pastry around the dish to make a nice lid. Lightly criss-cross the pastry with a sharp knife and then brush the top with a beaten egg glaze.

Bake the pie on the bottom of the oven for 45 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked, and all puffy and golden.

I got such an urge last week and found this wonderfully adult tasting meatloaf recipe. Instead of squirting tons of ketchup into the meat mixture, this recipe has the surprise ingredient of chopped prunes instead. Sounds disgusting is what I bet you are thinking, right? If so, you are wrong. The prunes add a nice sweetness to the meatloaf that tastes so much better than cloying effect of the normally used ketchup. In fact, while we were eating dinner, I had Carlo guess what the mystery ingredient was and after a few mouthfuls, he still had no idea. He named pretty much all of the other ingredients in the dish, but was stumped at what was the pi?®ce de r?©sistance of the dish.

Anyway see for yourself just how good prunes could taste (seriously, who knew?), and stump your loved ones by making this meatloaf and have them guess the mystery ingredient. This recipe for meatloaf makes enough for 8 large slices of meatloaf at $1.60 per serving.

Meatloaf, adapted from Gourmet, February 2008
1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs (from 2 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1/3 cup whole milk
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium celery rib, finely chopped
2 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 pound bacon (about 4 slices), chopped
1/2 cup pitted prunes, chopped
1 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck
1/2 pound ground pork
2 large eggs
1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Before you start preparing the mixture for the meatloaf, preheat your oven to 350¬?F with the rack placed in middle.

Start the meatloaf by soaking the bread crumbs in milk in a large bowl.

Then cook the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots in the butter in a large heavy saucepan over a medium heat for about 5 minutes and stir occasionally. Cover the saucepan and reduce the heat to low, then cook everything until the carrots are tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, allspice, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of pepper. Add this veggie mix to the soaked bread-crumb mixture.

Finely chop the bacon and prunes in a food processor, then add to the vegetable mixture along with the beef, pork, eggs, and parsley. Mix everything together with your hands.

Coat a 9- by 5-inch oval loaf pan with a light spray of olive oil and pack the meatloaf mixture into it. Once you have shaped the meatloaf, turn the loaf pan upside down in the middle of a 13- by 9-inch shallow baking dish or pan and remove the loaf pan. The meatloaf should retain the shape of the loaf pan, but will be able to cook in the pan so the three exposed sides get a bit crispy while it all cooks.

Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meatloaf registers at 155¬?F, about 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Once the meatloaf reaches the ideal temperature, remove it from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

After cooking the meatloaf, a lot of drippings remained in the baking dish, so I asked Carlo to make a gravy from them to top the meatloaf. He drained the drippings into a small saucepan and whisked them with a little bit of flour to create a roux. Then he added some water until he had the right gravy consistency and kept on whisking over a low heat.

The meatloaf tastes great smothered with gravy and a side of creamy mashed potatoes. It also tastes pretty amazing the next day on a sandwich too.

Cheddar BLT Burgers with Tarragon Russian Dressing
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 tablespoons sweet relish, or more to taste
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
12 ounces thickly sliced bacon
1 1/3 pounds ground beef chuck
1 1/3 pounds ground beef sirloin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, cut into 6 slices
6 hamburger buns, split and toasted, or you can use any other type of bread like we did with brioche
6 iceberg lettuce leaves
6 slices of tomato
6 slices of red onion

In a medium bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with the ketchup, red wine vinegar, onion, parsley, tarragon, sweet relish, and Worcestershire sauce. Cover it and place it in the fridge while you prep the burgers.

In a large skillet, salt and pepper the bacon and then cook it a moderately high heat, turning the pieces over once until the bacon is crispy, around 6 minutes or so. Drain the bacon on paper towels to get rid of any excess grease.

Light the bbq grill and let it heat up. While it is heating up, place the butter on the grill in a small metal dish to let it melt.

Gently mix the ground chuck with the ground sirloin (or plain ground beef if that is all you have), and thoroughly salt and pepper the meat. Divide the meat into six equal portions and form the patties in your hand, each one around 1 1/4 inches thick.

Place the burgers on the grill and brush them with some of the melted butter. Grill them over a high heat for 9 minutes to achieve a nice medium-rare burger. Turn them once during the grilling and brush the other side with a bit more butter. Place the cheese on top of the burgers right before they are fully cooked and let the cheese melt.

You can also put the buns or bread on the grill too and brush with a little butter to add a nice crunch to your burger as well.

To serve the burgers, spread the Russian dressing on the bottom of the buns and top with lettuce and tomatoes. Set the burger over this and top with the onion and slices of bacon to enjoy a really good and juicy burger.

When we went to LA a few weeks ago, we both wanted to try their Korean-inspired bbq, but with a long list of other restaurants to try, we didn’t get a chance. So when I saw a recipe for Korean style tacos with Kogi bbq sauce on Steamy Kitchen, I knew I had to finally try what lots of people are talking about.

The recipe calls for some leftover chicken, pork, or beef. If you don’t have any leftovers on hand, shredding up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store would work well too. We had some leftovers from the Chicken Under A Brick, so I used that meat as the base for our Kogi BBQ Tacos.

The tacos were incredible with a whole lot of spice cut by the sweetness of the sugar and rice wine vinegar. They were a bit juicy from the sauce and the kimchi, but well worth the mess! This recipe feeds 4 people at 57 cents per serving.

Kogi BBQ Tacos
1 pound leftover chicken, pork, or beef, shredded
2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
12 corn tortillas
kimchi

Combine all of the wet ingredients and add the sugar. Mix everything together well until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved.

Add the shredded meat to the sauce and let it sit to marinate for a few minutes.

Place the shredded meat in a warmed up corn tortilla and top with some kimchi for some finger licking tacos.

Lasagna
For the Meat Sauce:
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
42 ounces canned cans crushed tomatoes, 1 large can and 1 small can
salt and pepper

For the Lasagna:
10 lasagna noodles
12 ounces ricotta
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup Parmesan, grated
12 ounces Mozzarella, grated

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium high heat. Brown the ground beef and sausage, and break up the meat with the back of a spoon. Stir in the onion and cook for 4 minutes. Then stir in the garlic, bay leaf, basil, and oregano. Add the wine, canned tomatoes, and carrot. Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium. Simmer the filling uncovered until the sauce has thickened, around 45 minutes. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare the lasagna noodles as instructed on the package, and drain. I prefer noodles that you have to cook over the no cook lasagna noodles because they just have a better texture and flavour.

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, parsley, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, and then salt and pepper to taste.

Spread a quarter of the meat sauce on the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Lay 3 lasagna noodles down in the pan and spread half of the ricotta mixture on top. Sprinkle with some Mozzarella and then top with another quarter of the meat sauce. Repeat the procedure for one more layer ending with the last 4 noodles on top. Place the last bit of meat sauce on the noodles and then top with the remaining Mozzarella and 1/4 cup of Parmesan.

Bake the lasagna for 45 minutes or until bubbly at 375 degrees F. Remove from the oven and let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes. Letting it stand allows the lasagna to cool down and makes it much easier to cut and serve since each slice won’t fall apart.

I remember seeing a photo of Beef Rib and Sausage Ragu with Whole Grain Spaghetti on the front cover of the May 2009 issue of Bon Appetit, and thinking, yes, I need to make this. I kind of forgot about it for a couple of months until I found the issue in a pile of magazines next to my bed. Since I’m now in charge of weeknight dinners due to Carlo’s summer school schedule, I thought I would try it out because I don’t really mind a hot kitchen as long as it is full of good cooking music and a little bit of wine.

I’ve posted about my standard spaghetti recipe before, Jamie Oliver’s Spaghetti Bolognaise, but I have to say without a doubt that this is my new favourite meat sauce. It is decadently rich and meaty, but because you don’t need too much of the sauce, it somehow works, even on a hot summer’s night.

Be forewarned: the recipe takes a few hours to make between prep work, browning, and then of course, the magical braising process, but it is WELL worth the effort. I made the full amount which serves 12 people, even though I was only cooking for the two of us. We ate the ragu for dinner and then had some leftovers the next day. I put the rest into smaller containers and placed them in the freezer, so I can whip one out for a lunch or dinner on the fly, or use it as a pizza topping. Obviously, I’m a firm believer that you should only braise if you make enough food to enjoy on multiple occasions. If you make the ragu on a Sunday afternoon, you will not only have dinner for that night, but should be able to have a couple of other meals set for the week.

This recipe for Beef Rib and Sausage Ragu with Whole Grain Spaghetti makes 12 decadent servings at $1.93 each.

The ragu recipe calls for beef shanks, but Whole Foods was sold out of beef shanks, which they normally sell for $2.99 a pound. The butcher suggested that I use short ribs, but those were $6.59 a pound, so I decided to find a cheaper solution. I ended up buying some great looking beef ribs at Von’s for $1.99 a pound. The lady at the checkout raved about how good they were, and how she stocked up on them throughout the year when they went on sale, so she could have a freezer full ready for her summer bbqs. This lady looked like she would make great ribs, so I knew we had found a winning substitution.

Brown the sausage meat in a large pan and break up the sausage with the back of your cooking spoon. Remove and place the beef ribs in the pan and brown on all sides. Once they are done, place them with the cooked sausage, and saute the diced onions in the sausage and beef fat. I also threw in a couple of diced carrots and celery stalks to up the veggie quotient in the recipe.

Return the meat to the pan and add a bottle of red wine, 2 large cans of diced tomatoes, garlic, and spices and bring to a simmer. Here is what the ragu looks like after it has simmered for a few minutes and is ready for the oven:

Cover the ragu and place in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees. Braise the sauce until the beef ribs are tender, around 2 1/2 hours. After the braising magic:

Remove the beef ribs from the ragu and take all of the meat off the bone. After braising for so long in the tomatoes and wine, this is a pretty easy task because the meat just falls off the bone. Shred the meat and return to the stove top and reduce the sauce for around 10 minutes or so until the ragu is nice and thick like this:

Boil some whole wheat spaghetti and top with the ragu and some freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and then get transported to braising heaven!

The Spring Shepherd’s Pie feeds 6 people at $2.35 per serving.

I like Jamie Oliver and I think he makes good food that focuses on fresh and seasonal ingredients, but I really don’t get why he insists on putting bacon or pancetta in pretty much every recipe! Half the time it isn’t entirely necessarily and only serves to add some extra fat to the recipe. Since I’m trying to eat healthier, I chose not to add the pancetta that the recipe calls for and add some extra veggies and an extra can of chopped tomatoes to the meat sauce insead. Lamb was also quite expensive at the store, so I decided to use some lean minced beef instead.

I love mashed potatoes and these were no exception. I mainly followed the recipe instructions, but added a little less butter. Basically I just eyeballed the potatoes and mashed and mixed until they were light and fluffy. The lighter the potatoes, the less heavy the Shepherd’s Pie, which is a good thing at this time of the year.

Frying the rosemary reminded me of frying the sage for the Fried Egg with Sage, Chilli and Garlicky Yogurt. The rosemary fried up quite crisp, and more importantly, the fragrance of the rosemary made the kitchen smell divine. After mixing the fried rosemary into the potatoes, I decided at the last minute to add the remaining butter in the pan to further infuse the rosemary flavour into the mashed potatoes (so much for trying to use less butter in the potatoes!).

My mum would always score the top of her Shepherd’s Pie with the back of a fork when I was a kid, and I love to do the same with mine because it helps the mashed potatoes brown better and it makes the pie look fancier as well.

The Spring Shepherd’s Pie is an easy dinner that can be prepared in advance and then put in the oven to cook right before serving, and more importantly, it makes for great leftovers.

These Beef Skewers Marinated in Harisa and Yogurt feed 4 people at $1.96 per serving, and the Cucumber Salad featured in the recipe costs an additional 60 cents per serving for a full meal at $2.56.

The recipe calls for you to marinate the beef for at least half an hour, but I recommend that you try to get the meat into the harissa and yogurt goodness as early as you can so the flavours can really soak into the beef. If you don’t have any harissa in the fridge, you could also use some Thai red curry paste instead. If you make this switch, you may want to decrease the amount of curry paste used in case your marinade gets a bit too spicy.

The tri tip at the store was super fatty, so I ended up buying some sirloin for the skewers. Carlo had to cook the beef a bit more on the grill than the recipe called for to make sure that they were cooked all the way through, especially since he had threaded the beef strips onto the skewers and they were quite thick. Next time I make this, I would just cube the beef so it is easier to skewer and then a bit easier to eat in the pita.

This Cucumber Salad was a great addition to the skewers, especially when stuffed inside the pita with the beef and hummus. It was really easy to make: just cut up a cucumber, and throw in some olives, red onion, and mint. The recipe doesn’t call for any kind of acid in the salad, but I ended up squeezing in some lemon in there for extra zing.

The whole meal was great and all of the flavours worked really well together. Next time I make these skewers, I think I will make some of Minty Yogurt Sauce that goes with the Red Curry Chicken Kebabs so it can provide a nice coolness to the heat of harissa and play off nicely with mint in the Cucumber Salad.