♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - This week on Milk Street we travel to Italy.

We start in Naples to discover that Italian meatballs don't have to be small.

These are almost as large as your head, and they're absolutely delicious.

Then we do a two-cheese pasta with cauliflower.

And we finish up with a whole new take on spaghetti puttanesca.

It's actually simpler and more vibrant than you think.

So stay right here at Milk Street as we investigate new Italian classics.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - For 25 years, Consumer Cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect.

We offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our U.S.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you.

To learn more, visit ConsumerCellular.tv.

- You know, most people, J.M., who go to Naples go for the pizza, but you went for the meatballs.

First thing is they're huge.

- Yes.

- And I thought that was an American thing.

- Neapolitan meatballs are a different breed.

I was astounded by how good these meatballs were.

I was at Trattoria La Tavernetta.

It's a family-run place run by a grandmother, a grandfather, the parents, and five sisters.

And it's exactly the way it sounds.

To the point where one of the sisters, who is a classically trained opera singer-- Enza Vittozzi-- came out and serenaded us with "Ave Maria."

And that first night that I was there I got the meatballs.

Simple, large meatball with a very simple ragu.

When I cut into it with my fork it just delicately cleaved apart.

- Hm.

- And, when I tasted it, it was rich and meaty.

But it was also so light, and almost, dare I say, airy?

So Rosa Vittozzi offered to show me how she makes it.

So she had huge chunks of the innards of white bread.

And she took these huge chunks, and soaked them in water like a sponge, and then squeezed it out.

And then added it to what we would consider a very conventional meatball mixture.

It was her ratio of bread to meat.

That is what changed the texture of the meatballs because you would think a meatball that large and that tender would fall apart.

But the bread actually acts as a binder along with the eggs to hold things together, but it also acts like a sponge for flavor.

And it retains all the juices of the meat so that the finished meatball, even though it's airy and light, tastes rich and meaty.

- J.M., it's the perfect trip to Naples.

Who cares about pizza?

You got meatballs.

- Exactly!

♪ ♪ - You know, Naples is a surprising place.

It's packed with people, it's just got a lot of energy.

But I went there years ago to eat pizza at Michele's and everyone used a knife and fork.

And the reason is the center is soggy because they use fresh buffalo mozzarella.

But the meatballs are a complete surprise.

They're not tiny little polpetti, they're huge, and the filling is also very interesting.

So they're totally different than what I thought, and they are amazingly good.

- And it starts with cooking down some onion.

So here I have one large onion that's been finally diced.

And to that I'm going to add in one teaspoon of red pepper flake, along with six medium cloves of garlic that have been grated down.

And we are going to cook this over medium-high heat.

And we really want to cook this down until it's just aromatic.

Now, while I'm working on this, if you wouldn't mind working on the panade, kind of the other big piece of the mixture here.

What I have in this bowl is 6.5 ounces of panko breadcrumb.

To that, we're going to add in one and one-quarter cup of water.

So once all the water goes in, go ahead and use that spatula to really make sure everything is moistened and-or fully submerged at this point.

We're going to let that sit for five minutes so that way all of the starches can fully hydrate.

Once you can start to smell the garlic, go ahead and turn off the heat.

What we're going to do with half of this mixture is actually transfer it over to a bowl here because that is going to become part of our meatball.

The other half of it is going to become part of the sauce.

So now, with our onion mixture divided here, we could go ahead and just let that panko finish up its soak for the full five minutes, and then we can move on.

♪ ♪ Chris, our panko is all set with its soak, and it's fully, fully hydrated.

A panade is going to help us maintain the tenderness in all of our meatballs despite their massive size, so... - But we...

I gotta stop you for a second because a panade would be about this much bread and milk or water for this much meat.

And we have, well, it looks like as much bread as meat.

- Once you see how big these meatballs are, you're going to be very thankful that there's all this bread in here to keep everything tender instead of having one tennis-ball-sized lump of really overworked meat.

- Okay.

- So I'm just going to sneak right in and really squish it in between my fingers.

What I really want is a nice, smooth texture.

This is forming into a nice, even... basically a dough at this point.

So we can go ahead and take all of this and add it right into our onion mixture.

And just like before, you really want to mix this up until it's smooth, and that requires squishing it through your fingers.

Right in front of me I have two ounces of pecorino romano cheese.

And we are not skimping on the cheese here.

This is just the beginning.

Two ounces into our panade, along with one large egg, and one large egg yolk beaten together.

Thank you.

And then I have two tablespoons of olive oil right there.

Go ahead and throw that in.

And follow that up with one and one-half teaspoon of salt, kosher salt, and then a whole two teaspoons of black pepper.

Beauteous.

- Feel like I'm a magician's assistant or something.

- The magic is in the meatball, Chris.

We're going to go ahead and mix this up until it is completely smooth.

And then we could introduce the meat.

One and one-half pounds of 90% lean ground beef.

You really gotta mix it and get aggressive with both the meat and the panade to make sure that there's not a single streak of any of the bread mixture left or any of the meat left.

- Yeah, one of the things about using breadcrumbs in this, I found, is that when you use bread, sometimes you get little pieces of bread in the meatballs.

And this actually gets it nice and fine, and nicely mixed, so it's more even.

- Exactly.

What we've got to do now is form these meatballs, and I'm going to do that with the help of a half cup measure.

And we actually have this lightly greased with a little bit of cooking spray on the inside to make the dismount of all of these meatballs from the cup a lot easier.

Before I even get into that, I'm going to lightly damp my hands with a little bit of water, and then we can go ahead and get to scooping.

Now, once you have about a half-cup's worth in your palms, go ahead and compact it down into a nice, round, smooth meatball.

- You do that pretty well.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, I mean, you know.

- So I'm going to get about eight meatballs out of this mix.

And once I'm finished, I'll go ahead and pop them in the fridge to chill for about 15 to 20 minutes, just so that way, we can give them a chance to hold their form.

Chris, our meatballs have chilled in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Some of these meatballs have flattened out on the bottom.

It's not what we're looking for.

We want these to be nice and round.

- Kind of like sitting on a chair too long.

- (chuckles) We have the oven preheated to 475 degrees Fahrenheit with the rack set in the middle position.

And these are going to go right on in and roast for about 20 minutes, or until they're lightly browned on the outside.

But be sure to give them a rotate halfway through just to ensure even cooking.

♪ ♪ Chris, how good do these meatballs look?

- Ah...

I want to taste them, but they they look good.

- Before I do anything else to them.

I'm not even going to touch them.

I want to let them rest for ten minutes.

In the meantime, we could go ahead, and focus in on our sauce.

I'm going to set our Dutch oven over medium heat and then we could add in our tomatoes.

Now, here I have two 28 ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes that were pureed in a blender.

Now, the reason why we're not just using straight up crushed tomatoes is because crushed tomatoes in the can could be any form of ripeness, blended together, and then canned.

Whereas whole peeled tomatoes have been ripened, peeled, and then canned.

We're going to add in both of those cans of tomato.

- Now we should just say in Italy very often, tomato sauce is very, very simple, especially when it's accompanying something like a meatball.

So this is not a eight-hour marinara.

- No, no.

It's a nice quick ragu.

And that way we can maintain the flavor of the tomatoes much better simply by heating it through, as opposed to stewing over it for hours.

In addition to these tomatoes, we'll be throwing in half a teaspoon of red pepper flake.

We'll throw in a couple whole basil leaves.

And, finally, the pecorino romano cheese.

Now that is one ounce of pecorino romano, and it will simmer along with the sauce, and imbue the sauce with a lot of its flavor and richness.

We're going to bring this to a simmer and allow it to cook down for about 15 minutes or so just to thicken it up and bring the flavors together.

Chris, our sauce has been simmering down for 15 minutes.

We can go ahead and add in our meatballs.

Now I'm going to gently lift them off the pan and nestle them right into the sauce.

I'm just going to use two spoons to gently flip them.

Now you do still want to be fairly gentle with them because that panade in there truly does make them quite tender.

We'll allow them to simmer for five minutes or so to warm through, covered, and then we're going to go ahead and turn off the heat and let it sit covered for another five minutes just to bring everything together.

Chris, it's been five minutes.

I really can't wait any longer to eat this stuff.

- I know, I noticed you're a little... you're all nervous.

- I just really enjoy these meatballs.

So it's been sitting aside for five.

And now I want to go ahead and fish out that pecorino romano piece right here.

Now we can go ahead and enjoy them.

So how many meatballs are you in the mood for?

- Two.

- Two meatballs.

Okay, let me go ahead, and do that for you.

- What, you think one's... well, one could be a serving.

I admit they are quite large, but I'll take two.

- I have a feeling you'll want two after you take a first bite.

I never had meatballs like this growing up, and honestly, I'm a little bitter about it.

So top it off with a little bit of pecorino romano.

Sometimes they're served with polenta.

Sometimes they're served with pasta.

But a little bit of toast is just enough to get us through the entire... - I have enough bread in my meatballs.

You can have extra bread on the side if you want, but I'm...

I'm good.

- Fair enough.

- First of all, it looks gargantuan.

- Yeah.

- So I think we should taste.

- Let's give 'em a try.

- Oh!

(laughs) You know, you would expect a meatball with this much bread in it to be tender, which it is, but it has a lot of flavor too.

It has a lot of meat flavor.

It works.

- It makes this meatball so incredibly light.

Like looking at it, you wouldn't think, "Oh, that's going to be really easy to eat."

But, honestly, I could plow through these two in no time.

- So, as I said at the beginning of this recipe, Naples is full of surprises.

The pizza was a surprise but the meatballs are even a bigger surprise.

They're very large, which is surprising, but what's even better is the texture.

It has great meat flavor.

It's soft, it's silky, almost has almost a custardy feel in the mouth.

And the tomato sauce is nice and simple, which lets the meatballs shine.

Neapolitan meatballs-- top of my list.

- Awesome.

♪ ♪ - We learned this recipe from Antonella Scala.

She's a home cook from Naples, Italy, who hosts amazing pop-up dinners in her rooftop kitchen with a view of Mount Vesuvius in the background.

Now, we don't have that view today, but we do have the recipe.

This is Naples two-cheese pasta with cauliflower.

♪ ♪ So we always talk about how important the pasta cooking water is at the end of a recipe to loosen a sauce.

Well, that cooking water can be important at the beginning of the recipe too.

Here in this pot, it's a whole head of cauliflower that I cut in half, and it's really important here when you add the cauliflower to the pot, set a timer for five minutes.

We're just par cooking this at this point.

So we're not going to get rid of this water because what Antonella taught us was use the same cauliflower water.

It has tons of flavor.

We're going to cook the pasta in it, and then we're gonna make a really creamy, cheesy sauce in there as well.

So I'm going to let that come back to a boil, and we're going to chop our cauliflower just a little bit smaller than the pasta.

The pasta here is a short, curly pasta.

If you don't have campanelle you can use cavatappi or fusilli.

Those are both really great here as well.

And even though this is a little bit hot still, you can just chop it up like this.

♪ ♪ And definitely use the stems as well.

So we only par cooked this cauliflower so we want to continue cooking it, but we also want to get some really great flavor on it.

So we're going to brown it in a skillet.

I'm going to add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil to this pan and then one smashed clove of garlic.

Now, that doesn't seem like very much, but what we learn from Antonella is to season the oil and let this garlic cook here for about two or three minutes.

We're just trying to get the garlic brown, and then we actually just get rid of the garlic.

It's seasoned the oil.

We can add that cauliflower into the pan now.

(sizzling) And I'm going to add some red pepper flakes.

This is not going to be spicy.

It's just adding a little bit of brightness.

(sizzling) Little bit of salt.

I'm going to turn the heat up to medium high, and we're gonna let that brown for about eight minutes or so.

You want to really get some nice golden brown color on the cauliflower.

So now we can cook the pasta.

It's going to really infuse this pasta with all of the flavor of that cauliflower.

Now I'm only going to cook this for five minutes.

Drain the pasta and reserve two-and-a-half cups of the cooking water.

So our cauliflower is really nicely browned.

That's adding tons of flavor here.

So we can add our cooked-- par cooked-- pasta and one cup of this cooking water.

♪ ♪ And then a little bit of black pepper.

Going to let this cook for a few minutes just until the pasta is al dente.

If you find that the liquid starts to evaporate too much before the pasta's finished, just add a little bit more, but only about a tablespoon at a time.

♪ ♪ So I tested the pasta and it's cooked through so we can make our sauce now.

We're going to leave this on the heat and add a quarter cup of our cooking water.

Two-cheese pasta, there have to be two cheeses.

One is pecorino romano.

It's a hard, aged sheep's milk cheese-- really salty.

You want to make sure that this is melted before you add the next cheese.

The other is aged provolone, sometimes called provolone picante or sharp provolone.

Also salty, just a little bit nutty, not as hard as the pecorino romano.

So it's going to melt a little bit better in our sauce.

♪ ♪ Top it with a little bit of olive oil.

Can never have too much cheese.

And I'm going to give it just another hit of red pepper flakes.

So we used that cooking water to cook our cauliflower, our pasta, and make our creamy, cheesy sauce.

So that's Naples two-cheese pasta with cauliflower.

- Well, we've both been at different times to Pompeii.

You were focused on puttanesca sauce, among other things.

- Yes.

- I was focused on the ruins.

(chuckling) Which also I enjoyed.

So puttanesca, you know, anchovies, kind of this loose sauce, lots of ingredients, lots of prep.

- Yeah.

- You discovered that's not actually puttanesca.

- I was in the outskirts of Pompeii.

I was cooking with a home cook, Antonella Scala, and I asked her to teach me puttanesca.

She started the dish by heating up oil-- seems normal.

She then proceeded to add an entire head of whole garlic cloves.

- Mmm.

She sautés it for a bit, and then all of a sudden she does what I wasn't expecting.

She takes a slotted spoon, she pulls out all the garlic, and she throws it away.

And the idea is the garlic's done its job.

It flavored the oil.

You just want a gentle garlic flavor that's going to permeate the dish.

And that's exactly what Antonella did.

She added red pepper flakes, she added green and black olives, she added tomatoes.

Now this one is going to blow your mind, though.

In Italy, she used canned tomatoes.

- No, I've seen that, too.

It's like you expect fresh tomatoes, but they're pouring out of cans all the time.

- It's not always easy to get great tomatoes year round.

Anyway, so she has a great skillet sauce going, and I keep waiting-- where are the anchovies?

And she looked at me like I was crazy, which I run into a lot as I travel, and she explained there are no anchovies in puttanesca.

She then added a ton of capers.

Her point was you're supposed have a gentle garlic flavor.

- Right.

- And you get enough savory punch from the tomatoes, from the capers, from the olives, you don't need anchovies.

And why put it in if you don't need it?

- A simpler and better way to do it.

Thank you, J.M.

- Thank you.

♪ ♪ - I don't know about you, but when I think about puttanesca, I think about spicy anchovies.

But the recipe that we're going to make today actually has no fish at all.

But you still get a lot of that really good savory briny flavor from capers and two different kinds of olives.

And we do have a little bit of spice from the red pepper flakes.

We actually start by seasoning the pasta itself.

You can see that we have just two quarts of water boiling.

You're probably used to boiling your pasta in a lot of water.

But we're actually doing this on purpose because we want to really condense the starchiness of this water because that is going to help bring the whole sauce together.

So I just added a tablespoon of kosher salt, and I'm going to add in my spaghetti, and you may have to push it into the pot a little bit.

Don't worry about it.

It'll soften up really quickly.

And you want to set your timer for five minutes.

And the pasta will absolutely not be cooked at that point.

We're going to drain it when it's shy of al dente.

And the reason we do that is because then we can finish cooking the pasta right in the sauce.

It's going to absorb all that flavor and every single noodle is going to be perfectly seasoned.

While that cooks, we're going to get started on the sauce.

And I'm going to just add a tablespoon of olive oil.

And I have three smashed cloves of garlic.

And you can see I added the garlic pretty much right away.

And that is because we are going to be infusing the oil with the garlic flavor.

And once the garlic gets nice and toasty brown, and it's really flavored all of that olive oil, we're going to actually remove the pieces of garlic.

And this is a great trick if you have people in your life who think that they don't like garlic, but you like to make really flavorful food.

You can always cook your garlic kind of gently in the oil, let it get a little bit browned, and then just take it out and no one will even know.

They'll just say, "Why does this taste so good?"

So you can see there's a little bit of browning on the garlic.

We certainly don't want it to burn or the oil to get too hot.

But we want to give it a good chance to kind of infuse that flavor into the oil.

So now I'm going to scoop the cloves right out.

And we're going to add two different kinds of olives.

I have green olives... and Kalamatas.

And I have a half a cup of capers.

And.

if you're thinking that is a lot of capers, it absolutely is.

This is two of those little four-ounce jars that you buy at the grocery store.

And then for a little bit of heat because it is puttanesca, we're going to add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

And we're just going to let this go for about one minute.

You want to cook off any of that excess moisture from draining capers and your olives.

And now I'm going to add the tomatoes.

Buy the whole ones and crush them yourselves.

That's really the best way to do it.

Now I'm going to let this cook down and reduce for about five to seven minutes.

And, while that happens, I'm going to reserve some pasta water.

This is almost ready to drain.

We're almost at that five minute mark.

And we're going to set aside two cups of this super starchy, salty pasta water.

Now I'm going to drain the pasta, and when we come back, we can finish it.

♪ ♪ So, you can see that most of the liquid has evaporated here, and the flavors have had a little bit of a chance to mellow out and come together.

So now we're going to finish the pasta.

So I'm going to add one cup of the reserved pasta water... and a cup of reserved tomato juice from the canned tomatoes.

And you can see this pasta is not al dente.

It is not done yet.

I'm going to put it right in the skillet very carefully.

And this is why you want to make sure you always read your recipe all the way through and make sure you're using a 12-inch skillet.

Because, if you have a little baby skillet, you're going to make a mess here.

Now I'm going to turn up the heat a little bit.

Give this a gentle toss.

And then we're going to cover it and just give it a few minutes and toss it every now and again so that most of that sauce is absorbed right into the noodles.

All right, so this is looking good.

You want the sauce to really be absorbed into the pasta and make sure that it's clinging to every strand.

And when you're almost there, when it's just a little bit better thinner than you'd like, we shut off the heat and cover it, and it needs to stand for about three minutes.

This is a great time to grate some extra cheese, to pour yourself a glass of wine, to get ready to dig in.

Okay, so this has been just resting, hanging out for three minutes.

And the consistency looks perfect to me.

We had the extra cup of pasta water.

We're not going to use it, but it's always good to have as a little insurance back up in case the sauce is looking a bit dry before you serve it.

And basil is not actually traditional in this recipe, but we really like how peppery and bright it is.

Parmesan cheese, absolutely is traditional, and very delicious.

Add some more salty bite.

And then another little drizzle of olive oil, and that also gives it a really nice sheen.

All right, now I'm just going to taste it for salt.

And you want to be careful with this recipe.

You have the salty pasta water, and then the olives, the capers, the parmesan cheese, that all has a lot of salt in it.

I think we're good.

It doesn't need any extra.

And there's a nice kick from the red pepper flakes, so I'm not going to add any extra black pepper either.

But I am going to serve myself a bowl.

You always want to serve this with some extra parmesan cheese.

So we have spaghetti puttanesca straight from Sicily.

None of the anchovies, but all of the flavor.

It's fast, and it's one of my favorite weeknight pasta meals.

You can find this recipe and all of our recipes at MilkStreetTV.com.

- All episodes and recipes from this season of Milk Street Television are available for free at our website, MilkStreetTV.com.

Please access our content, including our step-by-step recipe videos, from your smartphone, your tablet, or your computer.

- The new Milk Street Cookbook is now available and includes every recipe from our TV show, from authentic lasagna Bolognese and roasted cauliflower with tahini and lemon to Indian butter chicken and flourless French chocolate cake.

The Milk Street Cookbook offers bolder, fresher, simpler recipes.

Order your copy of the Milk Street Cookbook for $27, 40% less than the cover price, and receive a Milk Street tote with your order at no additional charge.

Call 855-MILK-177 or order online.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following.

- For 25 years, Consumer Cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like.

Our U.S.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you.

To learn more, visit ConsumerCellular.tv.

♪ ♪ - Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to be the first to welcome you to Tel Aviv... - Welcome to Oaxaca's airport.

- Welcome to Beirut.

♪ ♪ (man speaking Hebrew) - (speaking world language) - Bonjour, je m'appelle Chris.

- We call it supa kanja.

It's the word for gumbo.

♪ ♪ - Christopher, you have to make the authentic, original cotoletta alla Bolognese for me.

♪ ♪ - So this is the Eduardo García blender.

- This is the no electricity.

♪ ♪ - Next is dessert.

- That is really good.

♪ ♪ I notice when you cook sometimes, you add a little bit of something, and then you just put the whole bowl in.

- I like to be generous with my food.

Generosity is important in cooking.

- That's true.

♪ ♪ - Can start building bridges, and food is definitely a perfect common ground.

♪ ♪ - This is a generational thing.

It's, it's something that you inherit.

♪ ♪ - Yeah, that was great.

(woman speaking Mandarin) - What was this for?

What did she say?

- You get one more chance.

- Salute.

- How is it?

He's speechless.

- I'm speechless.

That's so good.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪