CHEF and blogger Paul James writes for our paper.
With the European Championship now under way, I thought it may give me an opportunity to cook a dish from one of the countries participating that I haven’t been to.
Italy is one of my must go to places to visit. I had planned to go to Naples after finishing my trip around the Greek islands while researching for a book I was planning to write. Unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic quashed on all my plans.
I don’t know if it’s because of the cooking and travelling exploits of Gordon, Gino and Fred on their road trip through Italy or my culinary hero Rick Stein on his Mediterranean trips to places such as Palermo, Sicily or Puglia. At the latter he had his trusted Land Rover stolen, but returned shortly after with everything intact after appeals on local TV news channels! That draws me to this beautiful country.
Definitely it’s the Italian food that excites me but I did watch all of The Godfather films where Sicily was an influential part in some of the storylines.
This gives me a chance to plug my new book that I have finished writing and had the contracts offered to me for publishing ‘The Grandfather’ – my grandad is the best chef in the world.
Anyway down to this dish. This is my own recipe made with what I had in the fridge and cupboard.
The use of orzo pasta was a refreshing change from the more commonly used spaghetti or linguine and with a sauce made from the orzo’s cooking water (trust me it works) and juices from the tomatoes, garlic, onions and pancetta just glossing the pasta made it a very tasty and satisfying dish.
Per favore divertiti e arrivederci alla prossima volta (Please enjoy and see you next time).
Visit recipesfrommytravels.com for more on Paul’s blogs and recipes.
Italian meatballs with orzo pasta and chilli
Ingredients – Serves four
500g Steak minced beef
5tbsp fine white fresh breadcrumbs
A little milk, to soak breadcrumbs
1tbsp chopped fresh oregano (dried is fine, but add it to the onion, chilli and garlic fry)
2tbsp. olive oil
100g of cubed pancetta
1 red onion peeled and finely sliced ( reserve a small amount for later )
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced ( reserve 1 clove for later )
2 red chillis, finely sliced ( reserve a small amount for later )
Handful of Italian tomatoes quartered
Small bunch of fresh basil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
300g of dried orzo pasta.
Method
1. Add your beef mince to a large bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl add the breadcrumbs and a drop of milk, it may sound unusual but it helps to bind the meat together without using eggs. At this stage if you have fresh oregano add it to the breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper, then mix until you have a slightly doughy texture.
3. In a heated frying pan add the garlic, chilli and red onion (add dried oregano if that’s what your using) and sauté until the onions take on a darker tint.
Leave to cool slightly.
4. Add the breadcrumb mix into the bowl of beef mince and combine together by hand.
Then when cooled down add the chilli, garlic and onions it to the beef mixture and combine everything again by hand.
5. When this is done, wet your hands and roll the beef mince into balls, the breadcrumb and milk mixture in the beef will give you a smooth, compact meatball.
6. In the meantime bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil and add the orzo pasta and just a pinch of salt, cook to the packet instructions (approximately 15 minutes ) then drain (reserving a little of the cooking water).
7. Wipe out the frying pan but don’t wash it as the garlic, chilli and onion will add flavour to the meatballs while cooking.
8. Add the olive oil to the heated pan and gently fry the meatballs until golden and thoroughly cooked through.
9. Add the remaining chilli, garlic and onion to the pan of meatballs, along with the quartered tomatoes and pancetta and fry until the tomatoes and onions have softened and the pancetta is fully cooked and slightly golden.
10. Once this is done add the reserved cooking water to the meatballs to make a very gentle and slight sauce.
11. Then add the orzo to the meatballs and gently mix, taste for seasoning and serve on a warm plate with a scattering of fresh basil. Serve and enjoy.
