Big Bowl of Love’s Cristina Ferrare is SOOO excited to have Fran Alba, the owner of Sisley Italian Kitchen. Of course CF’s main focus in getting the famous recipe for Fran’s meatballs, but the both of them have fun and kick it up a notch in this Italian inspired episode.
What’s on today’s menu?
- Vegetarian Chicken Parmesan
- Broccoli Palermo
- Sisley’s Famous Meatballs
CF and Fran brought a lot of great tips to today’s episode. I loved everything I saw. I have cooked with vegetarian soy products a lot and look forward to testing out their recipe for Chicken Parmesan. Some days it can be difficult to keep it healthy and yummy when I am short on time. The Broccoli Palermo recipe is so easy and works perfect with almost any dish. I can’t wait to serve it up.
Now for a few BBOL tips:
- Be careful not to burn your garlic or your sauce will taste bitter.
- Add red pepper flakes to your oil.
- Whenever you use canned tomatoes, be sure to add a little sugar to counter the bitterness. Use about one tablespoon of sugar for each large can. Wine can be used also.
- Kosher salt makes the flavor pop!
- Butter adds a creamy texture to your sauce, but you can leave it out.
- Veggie nuggets can be purchased at local grocery stores or specialty stores.
- Use ground sirloin for the meatballs. Be sure to separate the meat up in the bowl so the meatballs will be juicer.
- Bread Crumbs- the staler the bread, the better for making the bread crumbs. Fran mentioned parsley, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder- needs cheese in it but you can’t add it to the crumbs because there is moisture in it.
- If you pack or apply too much pressure on the meatball, then they won’t be juicy.
- Can use an ice cream scoop to make uniform meatballs.
- Rotate the meatballs as they are frying. Be delicate so they don’t fall apart.
- Meatballs can be lightly golden if they are going to be cooking in the sauce for 40 minutes or under an hour. If you are doing a 2 to 4 hours of slow simmer cooking, then make sure they are very well done on the outside.
- Slice garlic in thin chips if you are worried about consuming too much. Be sure to watch it. Your dish will be bitter if it burns.
Here are a couple of my OWN suggestions:
- Soy products like the veggie nuggets can be used in all sorts of dishes. I cook with them all the time. Frying them in a little oil first helps to make it taste closer to the real thing.
- If you can’t find them at your local store, see if you have a Whole Foods Market around. They will have it. My favorite brands are Gardein and MorningStar.
- Make extra sauce! I always use a huge stock pot and spend hours and hours of cooking and stirring. Typically this only occurs on the weekend when I have the time. When I make extra, I can use it for pizzas, casseroles, spaghetti, etc. during the week. If I have too much leftover, I just freeze it. This saves me so much time!
- Simple breadcrumbs can be made with stale bread, garlic and onion powder, some parsley, oregano and a little salt and pepper. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit. Many great recipes start with an oops only to be shortly followed by an ahhh!
Links to OWN for the recipes:
http://www.oprah.com/own-cristinas-big-bowl-of-love/Vegetarian-Chicken-Parmesan-Recipe
http://www.oprah.com/own-cristinas-big-bowl-of-love/Broccoli-Palermo
http://www.oprah.com/own-cristinas-big-bowl-of-love/Jamies-Famous-Meatballs-Recipe