(chill rock music) - As a chef and restaurateur, I know what a happy dining room feels like, and it's gotta be the same when I'm cooking for friends at home.

A light cucumber salad before some creamy polenta and hardy meatballs will do the trick tonight.

I've invited over James Axe, General Manager of my restaurant Luca.

Dr. Comilla Sasson, an ER doctor here in Denver.

Good thing she was here, by the way, 'cause I had a little accident slicing roast beef at French 75 last night.

We're making an easy to put together, but still special meal, where everyone leaves my home full of life and buzzed on happiness.

Comilla, we both have kids, and James, maybe you have kids we don't know about.

- I don't know, maybe.

- The ones that you wanna take credit for?

- There you go, yeah, shh!

- I get it, okay.

- So I wanted to do some dishes that were like, elegant, a little up, a little bit simple to make though, something 'cause we're both so busy.

Everybody's busy.

So something that you could do and really have it be healthy, and fun, and feel a little bit fancy.

So I'm gonna do a salad that I love to do, and it's a cucumber, fennel, and red onion salad.

Really simple.

You can make it ahead and you can even marinate.

So it's one of my favorite salads.

I gonna see if my finger actually works, but- - [James] Careful.

- [Frank] Yeah, no.

- [Comilla] But look at that bandage job, isn't that awesome?

- [Frank] No, the bandage is awesome.

- [James] I thought you've done this before.

- 17 years or so.

You know, not too bad, yeah.

So you said you did say simple and easy, because I'll be honest, like, I work a lot, and I have a five and a six year old, and so the idea of having to come home and make dinner for them is hard.

So this has gotta be easy, hopefully.

- This is easy.

I mean, this is just some cutting and slicing.

The meatballs are a little bit of work, but those are something you could kinda do on your day off, and then have 'em in the refrige and do a simple reheat.

So, a lot of things are you wanna see if you can do things ahead of time to make it easy.

I don't know, do you ever use fennel?

(crickets chirping) I know James loves it.

- I personally love fennel.

Fennel is one of my favorite.

- To be honest, it's probably not on my go-to list of...

It's a vegetable, right?

- Yeah, it's a root vegetable.

- It's a vegetable.

- It has a nice flavor.

- They didn't teach me that in med school about vegetables.

- No?

- I'm sorry, no.

- That's weird.

- [Frank] To me, it's like, really light.

It's so like, anise licorice, right?

- [Comilla] Yeah.

- So I won't go that heavy on it.

I'm just gonna use the half.

And then I love raw red onion, and since Jacqueline's not here, I get to use it, 'cause Jacqueline does not love raw red onions, my wife.

- Oh.

(fun music) (Frank chopping onions) It's nice too, 'cause it adds some color too, right?

- Yeah.

We don't always cook for pretty, but it does help.

- [Comilla] Yeah.

- [Frank] So just a little bit of that.

I'm gonna throw a touch of dill in.

- [James] Love dill also.

- And now I'm gonna make a simple vinaigrette.

And one of the things, when I make a vinaigrette at home, I usually make a lot of it.

And then that way I always just have a nice homemade vinaigrette.

So really simple lemon vinaigrette, little Dijon mustard.

Like garlic, right?

Everyone likes garlic.

- Yes.

- So a little raw garlic.

(fun music) Some lemon juice.

I'm gonna use like, a tablespoon of lemon juice.

(fun music) And then I'm using a really nice Tuscan extra virgin olive oil.

And this is where you really want your vinaigrette to shine, right?

The oil is the whole flavor in it.

- And the cool thing is that I actually have all of these things in my refrigerator like right now.

- Right.

- I mean like that's, I guess I've never even thought of it, to just make my own vinaigrette.

That's awesome.

- And it's just as simple.

I mean lemon juice, just keep it really simple.

A lot of times if I don't have lemon juice, or don't feel like squeezing lemons, just red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, whatever.

Big pinch of salt.

Let's say two pinches of salt.

Some fresh cracked black pepper.

(fun music) And then it's just this simple, right?

And you can see it starts to like, emulsify.

- [Comilla] Yeah.

- So that's why I'm saying I usually make this, quite honestly, I get a leftover, like salad dressing bottle, once I finish that, and then I just keep making it in the salad bottle.

- So how long does it stay like, fresh or usable in your refrigerator?

- Weeks.

I don't even refrigerate it.

There's nothing in here that needs to be refrigerated.

- Wow.

That looks so fancy, though.

- Yeah, it does feel fancy.

- I would think with the lemon, just everything it would need to be, that's really nice.

- Yeah.

- So I just wanna... (tester rumbling) - [James] More salt?

- No, it needs more lemon juice.

(James and Comilla laughing) 'Cause I want, the lemon and the fennel really go well together.

- So we did for the first time with our kids decide because of the pandemic, decide to have a garden outside.

So we are growing our own herbs now, which is kind of fun.

- [James] So you can make, you can do 90% of this with what you have growing in your backyard, essentially.

- [Comilla] Isn't that so fun?

- [James] That's awesome.

- Yeah, like, the kids are gonna love that, seriously.

- No they're not.

(James laughing) (epic guitar music) - They're not?

My five and six year old still like me, though.

That's different, right?

(all laughing) - That first time you're gonna ask 'em to turn over a bed or pull a weed.

- Well, so right now they pull weeds for like 30 cents a weed, yeah.

- Oh, wow.

- Which is pretty good.

Yeah, pretty good, I thought.

- You'll, you'll get up to $10 a weed, and they're still gonna say no, because they hate it.

- It's like you've done this before or something.

- Right?

- No, there is no better time than hanging out outside.

- Yeah.

- Nice day.

And having them contribute and be part of it.

Especially like that first time you eat the tomatoes, or a cucumber or something out of your garden.

So just this simple salad.

I'm gonna put a little bit of cotija cheese on it, 'cause I am a cheese, I love cheese, and I'm trying to think.

Feta would work really well on this, but... Cotija is just so different.

And I know that this is kind of like a Greek salad, but I think a little crumble of cotija will give it that bite, that sharpness, and a little bit of richness to it.

(soft guitar music) And to me, this is like, the perfect salad.

Super healthy, summery, fun, and really good for you.

(buzzer going off) James, you were super nice enough to bring over a Riesling.

- [James] Yeah.

- [Frank] For us to try with this.

And I think it's perfect.

It's almost like, you knew what I was gonna make.

- Maybe not.

(Comilla laughing) So we got a Trimbach Riesling here.

Alsace Riesling, subtle, dry, little bit of fruitiness coming through.

I think with the cucumber, the fennel, the cotija, would be really nice.

- Well you guys give it a try.

Swizzle it, swirl that wine.

Try and take a bite.

(soft guitar music) - Oh see, this is good.

A lot of the Rieslings I find too sweet.

So I think this is like a nice mixture.

- [Frank] Rieslings, I think got a bad rap.

- Yeah.

- Very early on when they came to America, as being these fruity sweet wines.

- Right.

- When really, if you get a great Riesling from Alsace in France, it's clean, it's crisp, it's so misunderstood in America, I think - It absolutely is.

And there's still a nice fruit structure there.

It's a lot more subtle, but there's still a nice fruity character that you know, it's true to all Rieslings, but the dry side, I think, it welcomes more food and it's just nice to have.

- I feel like you can actually taste your food better that way.

- I agree.

- It's not overpowered.

- And when you get 'em this way, it's not overly oaky, it's not overly sweet.

It just allows everything to complement each other.

- You sound like you know what you're doing.

- No, I have no idea.

- I didn't think so.

(Comilla laughing) (soft guitar music) - You know, I think the thing that's so great about it, is that it doesn't feel heavy, right?

It feels so light and fresh, and that vinaigrette is amazing.

Like I cannot believe I can, like, I could make that.

Like I don't have to go to your house to do it!

- Just a few seconds, still.

- I know, right?

But that's what you're saying.

Like when you're talking about like fancy, I think it doesn't always, I always think that it has to take hours to do.

- Right.

- But that's not really the case.

Like that is amazing.

- I really love the cotija cheese, the dryness it brings to the cucumber and everything just being a juicy bite, and the cotija adds a really nice dryness to the flavor.

Really enjoy it.

And yeah, not to brag, the wine's the great pairing as well.

- No, no, please brag.

(all laughing) For our entree tonight, I'm gonna make meatballs.

Everyone always asks, how do you make good meatballs?

Meatballs are super easy.

The most important step in meatballs is to take some fresh white bread and soak it in milk.

So this makes like a panade, is what they call it.

And that helps to fill the meatballs also, like the Italians did this to stretch out the meat, right?

'Cause they always had stale or leftover bread.

And this helps to just give it a good texture.

- Does it matter like, what kind of bread you use?

- Old bread.

I personally like white bread, like cheap white bread with the crusts cut off is my favorite thing to use, 'cause it really, like, you see I just put all that milk in there, and it almost absorbed it all.

- We got a lot of that in my house.

- You can use stale bread too.

And soak, put a little extra milk in it.

So while I'm gonna let that soak, I'm gonna get some onions sweated.

So my meatballs have no garlic in them.

They're super simple, and I'm gonna sweat those over high heat.

- Wait, wait, wait, sweat?

- Yes, just basically, I'm just gonna release, let 'em get a little tender.

- Oh, okay.

- You just want the water to come out of them and get a little tender.

- [Comilla] Okay.

- [James] And what does that do for the meatball?

- [Frank] It just adds that sweetness to it.

- [Comilla] Huh.

- So James, James knows meatballs.

'cause we serve quite a bit of 'em.

- [James] I don't make them, I know the meatballs list.

- And the thing for me is, is like I love meatballs.

I don't love spaghetti and meatballs.

I don't mind it.

But I like a meatball by itself.

So we're gonna serve the meatballs with some polenta.

Just some simple cornmeal.

And I have some milk going over here, and I'm gonna add a big pinch of salt to this milk.

- [James] Oh, more salt, huh?

- [Frank] Yeah.

- So my five and six year old love polenta.

Like- - Who doesn't though?

- Yeah, I know.

But like, it's funny, 'cause they don't like rice, and they don't like pasta, but they love polenta.

It's so crazy.

- [James] Polenta has quickly has become one of my favorite just side dishes for everything.

It's just wonderful.

- It's so great.

I mean, polenta is like Cream of Wheat.

I ate Cream of Wheat as a kid growing up, and my mom would just put some brown sugar on it.

But when you're doing polenta, it's just super simple.

So the milk was hot.

- Yeah.

- And I'm using like just a really fine, it's a fine and coarse ground polenta.

But this is just about done.

Like it just needs to come up.

But you can see it's like, it's almost there.

It's gonna be a little, I want a little texture to it.

- But it thickens up pretty fast, right?

- Yeah.

- Like that was like, just a few, I mean a minute, right?

- Yeah, so it goes super fast.

- Yeah.

- And then, I'm gonna let it simmer, just really low heat.

And it's about a three-to-one ratio.

So three parts milk to one part of polenta.

I'm gonna add a little bit of water though, since it's thickened up and I want to keep it nice and thin for now, and I don't want it to clump.

So just a little bit of water.

Spill it all over when you do it.

- Oh yeah, you have to, right?

- Stick with it, yeah.

- Get a dog for later.

- That's what I have Watson for.

Watson's the Roomba.

- That's actually what I have a five and six year old for.

- They eat off the floor?

- Yeah, they do.

(James laughing) I'm a really good mom.

(James and Comilla laughing) No, no, but I will say my husband does not see things falling on the floor like I do, or on the counter.

I will say that.

So, just gonna put that out there.

- That's strange, 'cause my wife notices everything that falls on the floor.

- Yes, exactly.

No, I think that's on purpose.

I think that's a woman thing, that we notice everything.

- Yeah, 'cause men are insensitive.

- I'm not saying anything right now, but yes.

(all laughing) I might agree with you.

- Frank left that there on purpose.

- Right?

- So for these meatballs, I'm using lamb, because this is one of the things we do at Osteria Marco, is we make a lamb meatball with a little bit of polenta.

So I'm gonna add my bread in here.

- And only because I need very clear instructions, 'cause I'm an ER doctor, and I don't do this for a living.

Like, how much bread was that?

- So that was like, five slices of bread to about a pound and a quarter of meat.

- Okay, and you cut off the crusts, you said?

- And I cut off the crusts.

- Okay, cool.

- So I'm gonna put a little bit of chili flake in it.

- And a lot of salt, if you didn't notice.

- I did put a lot salt in it.

A little bit of oregano.

- We'll have the high blood pressure diabetes talk later.

- But the food will taste great.

- The food will taste great, that's all that matters.

- Moderation, moderation.

- There you go.

- Moderation, right?

- [James] It's better now, right?

- [Frank] Put in a good pinch of parmesan cheese.

- [Comilla] That was your pinch?

- [Frank] That's a pinch.

(all laughing) - [Comilla] I love that pinch!

Oh my gosh.

- Especially of cheese.

- Right?

- Give me all the cheese.

- Did you eat like, a block of cheese last night for dinner?

- Give or take.

- Right, okay, cool.

- [Frank] And I'm just gonna dump my onions.

So you can see when I say sweated, they're just like, translucent.

- [Comilla] Yeah.

- So I'm gonna add those to it.

- [James] Just a little bit of color there too, yeah.

- Yep.

(soft guitar music) And then I'm gonna just add two eggs to it.

And the eggs really just help to bind as it's cooking.

- [Comilla] Okay.

- [James] You see that technique?

Cracked it- - [Frank] Even with the finger.

- The one thing I can do is crack an egg with one hand, yeah.

- I can, but there's gonna be shells all through the dish.

- No, like I have actually, the only good things I've done as a mother, I've taught my kids how to do that as well, and make coffee in the morning.

(all laughing) - Coffee?

Do the kids like coffee?

- My six year old makes me coffee in the morning.

- That is awesome.

- I have made it.

I'm gonna mic drop, and just step away.

And never be, yeah, just say I'm done, I've done my job as a mom.

- You know what sounds great?

Coffee.

Off she goes.

(all laughing) - Exactly, like, if you accomplish nothing else in your life, you can make coffee and crack an egg with one hand.

- And crack an egg, yeah.

- I'm just gonna add a little bit more Parmesan cheese to this.

- [James] Just a pinch, though.

- Yeah, just a, that's a pinch.

(James laughing) (soft guitar music) It's also kind of fun too.

My six year old wants to be a chef.

- Oh, discourage that with all your heart and soul.

- So yeah, no, he like, literally wakes up in the morning and he tells me that he wants to make me breakfast and coffee.

- Right.

- And coffee, there you go.

- And so, yeah, I mean sometimes breakfast right now is like a bowl of cereal.

Get him a chef hat.

- Oh, he has one.

Like, he loves it.

Like, he literally wants to be a chef.

So he may be calling you.

- If he loves a 14 hour workday standing on his feet all day making no money, it's perfect for him.

- [Comilla] Okay, sweet.

Sounds exciting, yeah.

- Six years old is the best time.

That's the best age.

Six through about 14.

- Yeah.

Oh, and then what happens after 14?

- You don't even wanna know.

- Okay, don't tell me.

- You don't wanna know what goes on in that bathroom.

- [Comilla] Oh geez!

(grim rock music) - We're not cutting this, right?

(all laughing) - Some of this is gonna be cut, yeah, yeah.

(Comilla laughing) - This is pretty good.

So now we're ready to just form 'em into the actual meatball.

- [Comilla] Okay.

- [James] I see, and that pot there, you just got a little olive oil?

Is that everything in there?

- A little olive oil.

And I'm gonna kind of brown these off.

- [Comilla] It browned really fast.

- Yeah, they will brown really fast, 'cause there's, well, the milk, the bread, all of it kind of comes together pretty quickly.

- [Comilla] Okay.

- And I'm just trying to get a quick color on that one's the last one in.

(meatballs sizzling) And this just helps to like, get 'em together, to solidify 'em.

So when I put the tomato sauce on.

(meatballs sizzling) - [Comilla] So you're not really like, waiting for them to cook necessarily on the inside?

- [Frank] No.

- [Comilla] And you're just getting the outside?

- I'm just getting a little color on 'em, a little flavor.

That caramelization of the meat really helps to get the flavor and intensify it.

But I'm gonna cover these with tomato sauce.

(sauce sizzling) - So tell me a little bit more about the tomato sauce.

- This is just tomato puree.

- Yeah.

- A little bit of garlic, a little bit of onion, sweated.

That's it.

- That's it?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- This is like, our base tomato sauce that we use in the restaurants.

- [Comilla] Wait, that's it?

Really?

- Yeah.

And then what I will do is finish it with like, a little fresh basil, and some butter, and some cheese.

- [Comilla] Wow.

- So I like to keep it very simple.

So they're just San Marzano tomato puree, garlic and onions.

So James, you brought a cocktail.

This is something you know is gonna go really well with the polenta and the lamb meatball.

So what are you gonna pour?

- So I made a little bit of a variation on a Bee's Knees.

So I did a mint-infused honey.

Lamb and mint just classically go great together, honey and polenta also.

So I did mint-infused honey with Leopold's new Number 25 gin.

There's a really nice citrus note to it.

Not as much as the summer gin, but really nice notes.

And I just felt like it was perfect for the dish.

So a Bee's Knees is gin, honey, lemon, very simple.

But I put a little mint in there, and I think it came out really nice.

- So how do you mint-infuse something?

- So I kept pretty simple with this one.

Essentially all I did was that I brought mint over heat, at like a low heat, and I'm sorry, honey over low heat.

And then I put some mint in there, and I let it just kinda simmer for 20 minutes or so until those mint leaves were wilting a little bit, losing their color.

So actually, the honey has a little bit of a green quality to it, which is really nice.

You're not gonna see it in the cocktail itself.

- [Comilla] Yeah.

- [James] But in the honey, it does have a little bit of a tint to it from the- - [Comilla] And then do you strain it?

- [Frank] It's beautiful.

- [Comilla] Like, just strain it at the end?

- Yeah, strain it all out to make sure it's clean.

No one wants to be drinking chunks of something in their drink.

And then I got a couple little lemon wheels here for garnishes that I cut.

But yeah, it's a variation on a Bee's Knees.

And as a bartender, I've always used orange blossom water in everything.

There's a couple drops of orange blossom water.

I don't know, I think it gives a little bit of body, a little bit of flavor, floral, which I think it's really nice.

- [Comilla] Cheers.

- [James] Cheers.

- [Frank] And it's fancy.

- [Comilla] Dude, very fancy.

- [James] You gotta be fancy.

(upbeat jazz music) - This is amazing!

- I'm glad you enjoy it, yeah.

- Holy cow!

- So something I also think is nice and light bodied, that the cucumber salad, it could have gone really well with as well.

- Yeah.

Again, it's so fresh.

- Yeah.

- It just feels really light.

- And I think a key component to any cocktail is to have fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, fresh citrus.

When you're skipping on that, you're skipping on a lot of the flavor.

- I think our meatballs are just about done.

So I'm gonna finish off our polenta.

And this is something you wanna do right at the very end, with your polenta, is just gonna add some butter, and that'll give it a little bit of richness.

- Why are we waiting till the end?

- Because if you put it in too early, it'll break.

- Yeah.

- And I don't want it to break, and get oily, and look oily.

- Okay.

- And then I have a little Mascarpone cheese, which is like Italian cream cheese.

I'm gonna put just a spoonful of two of that in there.

- So how thick is the polenta right now?

- So right now we're just above like, soup level.

- Oh, got it, okay.

So that's why you added some additional water earlier?

- Yeah, I just wanna keep it this consistency and then the butter and the Mascarpone will also thin it down.

- Okay.

It smells amazing.

- It does.

- And then finish it off with some Parmesan cheese.

- [Comilla] A pinch?

- [James] Give it a pinch.

- [Comilla] A pinch of Parmesan.

- [James] Half pinch.

- Yeah, half pinch.

(Comilla laughing) (upbeat jazz music) Like, you kind of want it to not stand up and be like... You want it to run.

So when you put it in a plate, you'll see that it spreads out.

- [Comilla] Yeah, but it's not too thin.

- No, you don't want it to be too, it's just a fine line.

(soft guitar music) I'm just gonna finish this off with a little bit of chopped basil, a little bit of Parmesan cheese, and then- - [James] This looks outstanding.

- Just some extra virgin olive oil to finish it all off.

(soft guitar music) - So what does that add to the flavor?

- Just some richness, some fruitiness, a little acidity, actually, from it.

- Okay.

- And this is lamb meatballs with a little polenta.

- Wow.

- For you.

So it did take a little while to make, but this is something, like, almost everything could be made in advance.

And then all you'd have to do is just have all the meatballs and everything in the container, throw 'em in your pot, heat 'em up, and then make your polenta, which only took like, six minutes.

So, to me, this is a great Sunday night meal.

Or Friday night date night.

I did bring a wine that I think goes really well with it.

I think James knows this.

It's an Amarone Valpolicella.

- I could talk about a little bit here, for sure.

Nice fig notes.

A little bit of a nuttiness, like a walnut, and like, just super dark cherries.

Oh...

Without tasting it, I can imagine this with the meatballs is gonna be outstanding.

It's gonna be on the drier side.

(soft guitar music) Mm.

- You can kind of smell that, the nuttiness to it, too.

- Yeah, the flavor.

You get figs right off the bat.

Nice big old fig bite.

The sweetness between the polenta, the lamb, the richness, everything's gonna be really good.

- That is really good.

- Well done, Frank.

- [Frank] Well, take a bite, and let's see what you think of the polenta.

(soft guitar music) - Wow.

(Comilla chuckling) I'm speechless.

It was hard to make me speechless, but that is amazing.

- Thank you very much.

So the lamb isn't as prevalent as you would think, right?

- Not at all.

- It kinda mellows out in it.

- But what it is, one thing I know is very different is it's super tender.

A lot of meatballs, they have a little bit more of a texture to it.

This here just kinda melts.

- [Frank] It's the bread.

It's the panade, that's milk-soaked bread is what really makes a great meatball.

That's every grandmother's secret, is the soaking the milk and the bread together.

- You gotta soak it.

That's the secret.

- [Frank] Yeah.

- Interesting.

- I want to thank you for coming in.

Like, this is the perfect thing, right?

You're so busy and you saw that you can make this.

It's a half hour, really, start to finish.

- This is amazing and it's doable.

I think that's the best part about it.

It doesn't feel like something that I can't do just because I'm not a chef.

Like I could do this as a mom who works.

- And after a long day of work, I'd love to eat something like this.

That sounds great.

(upbeat music)