Feeling spicy? Come with us as we explore what drives passion and prepare my mother’s famous meatballs, dancing in the kitchen in a fiery red dress and drawing inspiration from her wise words as we lean into Italian culture.
Listen to the Feed Your Fire podcast episode on Apple and Spotify.
Watch podcast video of the Hot Italian episode on YouTube.
Episode Transcript:
Hello, I'm Kim Baker, founder of Kim Baker Foods. Today's Feed Your Fire podcast episode is the hot Italian so come with us on a fun spicy ride as we mix things up and draw inspiration from mom's famous meatballs.
I'm going to start today's episode with a nice glass of red wine, maybe a Chianti or a Sangiovese. You decide. It just needs to be something that's worthy of the title—The Hot Italian. If you can already tell we're in kind of a spicy mood today and we want to have fun.
There's just something so magnetic about Italian culture. It's warm, it's sensual, it's full of beauty and flavor. In culinary school, we spent about a month focused on Italy. When we would make anything like a tomato sauce, anyone of Italian heritage was not allowed to take the lead at the stove because invariably, there were very passionate viewpoints about garlic and onion, and they wanted us to follow the directions as they were set out in the course. That passion creates such an allure, and it's what we're going to focus on in today's episode.
Passion needs freedom to exist. The quickest way to extinguish that passionate spirit is to put it in some type of container. It's something that's born from an authentic expression, and it's as unique to you as your fingerprints. Tapping into your passion is essentially tapping into your truth.
If you try to put me in a box, I get spicy. That's because our passions combine what's meaningful to us with things that we enjoy. That's like a double stuffed Oreo. It's hugely powerful. You put meaning and pleasure together, and you have created a firecracker.
What is it that gets you spicy? What gets you ignited from the inside, you might need to open your mind or let down your guard to tap into it. Truly, that's part of what this podcast is about. We're constantly trying new things, and I don't know if it's going to work—ever, but I love doing it, and I love sharing it with you. It's that pursuit of something regardless of the outcome, because it comes from our heart and not our minds.
To live passionately, you have to make space for that energy in your life. Passion cannot live in a place of deficit. It needs to be fed, and quite literally, that's what we're going to do today. We're using my mom's meatball recipe. Her birthday just passed, and my math is a little rusty, but I believe she would have just turned 78. It's been a while, and I miss her. So we're going to use her famous meatball recipe together today to kind of bring her spirit into our kitchen. I just made these meatballs for my boyfriend and his parents, who came over. We had an Italian themed dinner, and it was a hit, so I think you're going to love it.
Now, at any time, as we prepare this recipe, you are encouraged to dance. This is the hot Italian episode, and as I was preparing this meal, all I could think about was the expression shake, what your mama gave you. And since this episode was inspired by mom, I think it's appropriate to do just that.
Now mom's meatballs were poached and not fried, so the first thing we need to do is make a tomato sauce, which is what we're going to cook the meatballs in. This is really simple. You're going to heat up some olive oil and a large, preferably shallow pot, because we're going to need to fit a fair amount of meatballs in there. Once your oil is hot, we're going to add diced onions, and we're going to let those cook for about five or more minutes until they are translucent and tender. If you need to add a little bit of salt so that they don't really caramelize, we really want to sweat them out. And then once those are tender, add a generous amount of chopped garlic, and just let that cook for about 30 seconds.
We're going to add in a couple cans of whole San Marzano tomatoes. That's very important to have good quality tomatoes—it's like the most important step here. So just open those cans up, add them to the pot, and the good quality tomatoes will kind of crush easily when you press on them with a fork or a wooden spoon. They should be tender. So break up any of those whole tomatoes and let that mixture stew together. I season it with some salt and pepper and just let it simmer.
While that's cooking, we're going to prepare our meatballs. Now, I went to the butcher shop, and I got really good quality meat. It is a combination of beef, pork and veal. This meat combination is typically sold by the pound. So for this recipe, we're going to use a pound. Feel free to double it.
I'm going to take a large bowl and I'm going to put that ground meat mixture in it. I'm going to add in two whole eggs, chopped fresh parsley, a lot of salt and pepper, a generous sprinkle of garlic powder, about a quarter cup of grated Parmesan cheese and a generous amount of bread crumbs.
My mom's recipe did not combine bread with milk. That whole thing, which is pretty standard—hers was different. So trust me on this one, mix everything in that bowl up really well, and then, I want you to take ice cold water, and I want you to add it to the meat mixture. How much you ask? I cannot tell you specifically, but you want this mixture to be kind of wet, like my mom would explain it as add more water than you think you would want to add. Add it slow, so that you're in control and you don't feel like you added too much or too little. Just add some be generous. Add some more. This essentially creates an emulsification process, and I think that's what made my mom's meatballs so tender.
Now I want you to take your hands and form round balls with the meat mixture, it should be soft, but still hold its shape. Now gently plop that meatball into the pot. I usually start at the perimeter, and as I add more meatballs, I kind of work my way around the pot so that they're not touching each other. The sauce should come to the top of each meatball. And if it's not, gently take a spoon and just add a little bit of the sauce from the pan over top of each one and let them cook undisturbed. You'll want the temperature at a low simmer.
Now, once they've had a chance to cook for about 10 minutes, you can take a spoon and kind of move them around to make sure that if the tops weren't covered, they're now submerged. Kind of rotate them and gently use that spoon at the bottom of the pot, just to make sure nothing is sticking or burning. Now let those meatballs cook for another 10 or 15 minutes until they're cooked through. The tomato sauce will actually have changed color. It will become like more of a pinkish color than the bright red that it was before.
Now, a cook must taste their food, so grab one of those, put them on a plate. If you want to garnish it with a little bit of parsley, have at it. Add a generous dose of that sauce and take a bite. Bread for dipping is highly encouraged, and then wash it down with a swig of that delicious wine.
These were such a hit when I made them for my boyfriend's parents that I actually gave them some to take home. And you know it's good when you leave a dinner party with a tupperware.
Being able to carry my mother's recipes on is such a powerful way to express the connection that I feel to her. It's kind of like she and my father joined us while we had dinner in spirit. At the very least, we drank from their wine glasses and sat at a table that was actually theirs with the light above us that used to be in the kitchen at the house I grew up in, and we're carrying that forward in the most beautiful, intimate way.
My mom used to always tell us to just go for it. She loved the idea of us tapping into that passion and just doing what made us happy, and I love being able to share that with you today, as we celebrate her birthday.
We live in such a complex world with so many distractions, that fire can so easily be put out. We need to really fight for that passion to continue to thrive in us. So once you find something you're passionate about, go for it. Let the meaning and enjoyment carry you, and if that means dancing around the kitchen in a sexy red dress—you fully have our support. Until our next episode. We say, so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth.