Salsa Verde, I Heart You.

I've been spending alot of time in the kitchen lately - trying out new recipes. The kitchen is one of my happy places. I needed to put together a quick sauce to drizzle over skirt steak and had all of the ingredients needed for salsa verde.

Salsa verde is not the Mexican green salsa you may be thinking of, this one is a classic green sauce from Italy. It's versatile and easily adaptable to what you have in your pantry. I referred to Alice Water's book, The Art of Simple Food, for some direction. The result is a simple sauce - fresh, mouthwatering, a little briny, flavored with parsley, lemon zest, garlic, capers and olive oil.  Add a little bit of chopped anchovy for an extra kick.  I drizzled it over some skirt steak, but it would be delicious over grilled chicken, fish, lamb or over scrambled eggs. It won't last long, that's for sure.

Salsa Verde (by Alice Waters)

1/3 c. coarsely chopped parsley

grated zest of one lemon

1 small garlic clove, finely chopped or minced

1 tbs. capers, drained and rinsed, chopped

1/2 tsp. salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 c. olive oil

1 anchovy, finely chopped (optional)

Mix well and taste for salt.  Let the sauce sit for a while to develop the flavors.

Meatballs 4.0

Sometimes I surprise myself. I did a quick search on MM before drafting this blog post and found that I have featured the topic of meatballs here, here, and here. Hope you're not "over" the meatball because I HAVE to share another meatball recipe with you. You're just going to have to trust me on this one - let me lead you into the kitchen, I promise not to disappoint you.

Meatballs are one of this dishes that are either fantastic or disappointing. There is little room for anything else in between, however, after listening to Molly and Matthew's recent Spilled Milk podcast all about meatballs, I was inspired to make a batch.  Molly referred to a recipe in her book for Mediterranean style meatballs served a yogurt sauce and immediately I sprung into the kitchen to look it up.

What I loved about this recipe is how flexible and easily interchangeable it is when it comes to ingredients.  Don't have cilantro, but got parsley, substitute. Not a raisin fan, go ahead and substitute with dried cranberries.  The recipe calls for golden raisins, but I used dried cranberries instead. The original recipe calls for 1 lb. ground lamb, turkey or chicken - I did half and half, lamb and ground turkey.  Again, whatever your pleasure. The world is your oyster or in this case, a meatball or two.  The result is one mouthful of unctuous, sweet, earthy and nutty meat. I will wait for applause on this one.

Enjoy.

Doran's Meatballs with Pine Nuts, Cilantro and Dried Cranberries (adapted from Molly Wizenberg's recipe in A Homemade Life)

For yogurt sauce:
1 c. plain Greek yogurt
3 tbs. lemon juice
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. salt 


For Meatballs:
1/2 c. yellow onion
1/4 c. fresh cilantro
1/2 c. pine nuts
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. fine bread crumbs
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2 lb. ground lamb
1/2 lb. ground turkey, dark meat
2-4 tbs. olive oil


First, make the yogurt sauce.  Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Allow the flavors to marry together.  You won't be sorry.


Using a food processor, pulse together the onion, cilantro, pine nuts and dried cranberries. In a large bowl or stand-up mixer, combine the ground meats, onion mixture, bread crumbs, beaten egg, salt, cumin, and pepper. Mix until combined, but do your best not to overmix, meat tends to get tough easily. With damp hands, use a small spoon or hands to take a small hunk of meat and form 1-1 1/2 inch balls.  Set aside on a large plate.


Warm 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat.  Add about half of the meatballs (be careful not to overcrowd the pan) and brown them on all sides. The meatballs are ready when they are evenly browned and feel pleasantly firm, but not rock hard.  Transfer the cooked meatballs to a paper towel lined plate. Then repeat with second half of the batch, you may or may not have to use more oil, your call.  Trust your culinary instinct.


Serve warm with the yogurt sauce.