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AAF’s Recipe of the Day

When I lived in L.A. I was kind of semi-famous (in my circle of friends) for hosting Scrabble parties every Tuesday nights. About twenty of us would gather in my house in Laurel Canyon and play, chat (gossip, really), eat & drink. I’m a fairly good Scrabble player and incredibly competitive: if you’re slow or can only make up four or five letter words, you’d be sitting in the garden sipping wine and chatting.

The real crew of players were a motley one, from just about anywhere on the planet. We’d have sessions starting at eight sharp, going on till 3 or 4 in the morning. Needless to say, we’d get blotto on the vino but we were also fueled by a hearty dish of meatballs and Tortiglioni ( tube pasta similar to Rigatoni. Tortiglioni is narrower in width than Rigatoni and its surface ridges spiral around the tube, rather than run parallel to the length as they do on Rigatoni. Pic below)

So, on Sundays I’d cruise to Santa Barbara to buy a large box of tomatoes and pick up some wine from the many wineries that abound in the surrounding hills. On Mondays I’d make a huge pot of tomato sauce laced with basil and thyme, cooked slowly with the help of a passable bottle of Merlot. And at about 5pm on Tuesdays I’d make the meatballs, the way my great-grand mother taught me. You have to get a good mix of minced beef and lamb, roughly half and half. Add to the mix some finely chopped red onions, tiny cubes of Serrano Ham, finely chopped up blobs of hard Pecorino cheese (it adds an incredible flavor as it’s peppered with…black peppercorns), salt & pepper to taste, 2 whole eggs (per 250 grams of mixture) and roll the balls (of about one inch and a half each) into a freshly made tray of breadcrumbs. I’d cook them slowly, 20 by 20 (I’d be making a couple of hundred), drop them into the sauce and wait till they rise, cook them for about 10 minutes and put away in a waiting dish. A whole lot of fun. When everyone arrived just before 8 I’d cook the Tortiglioni to perfection (slightly al dente) and serve immediately. The guests were encouraged to bring some pastries and sweets or fruits so we’d be munching on something throughout the night. Alas, where I live now, hardly anyone knows how to play so I’m teaching my eldest daughter (11) the joy of words…and soon, Monopoly, another favourite game of mine to pass the time during the long winter nights.