Pasta & Meatballs: The Ultimate Upgrade | Dinner DeeAs

We're bringing big bold Italian flavors to the kitchen today and it all starts with a classic pasta and meatballs and we're taking it to the next level. The secret? The sauce is so versatile it'll be your new kind of weeknight weapon. So stick around as we get creative with comfort food on Dinner Dias. Welcome to the kitchen. I'm Angie Corley and this is Chef David Asher from Taverna Costale in St. Pete where everything we are making today is on the menu and top sellers. This is going to be good. Okay, Chef says these are all easy to make and healthy? Yes, 100%. So we're going to start out making our sugo sauce. Now you guys can do this at home. Super simple. Get all this stuff at Publix. We're going to start out with some olive oil. Be generous with your olive oil. Thank you for that. Olive oil is important. We don't need to baby it, right? No, it's important. The base of the flavor is in that olive oil. It's important. Now, we're getting our oil hot in the pan. We're going to go ahead and dump our onions. Our garlic. You did dump that, too. Yes, I did. We're going to put a little bit of chili flake. It is really up to you on how much spice you would want in your tomato sauce. So I would always say start with a little. And if you want it hotter, you can always add it at the end. A little bit more, okay. I'm going to also put in a little bit of salt. Love that. A little fresh. Fresh like pepper. There is something about the smell already. Oh, I know. You know. Come on. You're in the kitchen. Do you make, like, gallons of this at the restaurant? We make this fresh every single day. It is just, it's one of those things that we do. And you have to. This is kind of the base for an Italian restaurant, right? Yeah. And it really goes into so many dishes that we do at the restaurant as well. This lasts for, you know. I'm of the old belief that you take your sugo, you take your tomato sauce, you put it in the fridge, the next day it's even better, right? For real. Oh, wait, are we ready for those tomatoes to go in? Because my stomach is talking to me, David. So what I'm going to do, we're going to go ahead and dump all of those beautiful tomatoes in there. Ooh, nice. Okay. Set that to the side. Now, I put a little bit of water. And why I put a little bit of water, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of cheap. So when I buy those cans. Do you rinse the jar, buddy? I do. My bestie then. All right, right on. I do. So we're just going to get that going. And then we literally just dump our basil in. Oh, that smells good, too. Oh, can I do? Yeah, please. Because I can say I made it. Yeah, exactly. And all we really want to do is just, we can lower the heat a little bit and just, you just want to bring it to, yeah, just bring it to the simmer. And you don't really have to cook and cook and cook it. I mean, it's literally almost done. Oh, I don't want to get, you get those. Of course. All right, let's do it. All right. We're going to remove that from it. I'm going to need a tasting spoon down here. We're going to let this simmer. And then are we coming over to this side? Mm-hmm. All right, let me just do a little something. Let's switch sides. Okay. Oh, that's good. Oh, that's good. Next, what I'm going to do is I'm doing a little toasted panko. Now, this is something that you can use for chicken parm. You can use for... The same panko. Mm-hmm. Yeah, 100%. You can use it for chicken parm. You can use it for doing like a piccata. We do a swordfish piccata at the restaurant that's absolutely to die for. Okay, tell me what you put in. So the panko breadcrumbs? Yep, parmesan, grated, a little bit of fresh chopped garlic, a little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper. And then what I like to do is throw a little parsley in there. And if you could pass me that olive oil. Sure. Thank you. Okay, there you go. Now, so a little olive oil in there. And again, be generous with your olive oil. It's because this is going to be the breading on top or inside of the meatballs. You're going to mix the meat. Actually, this is going to go on top of our pasta. What? Yes. You're showing off. I'm not really trying. And he's showing us how. Chef David, wow. So I'm just getting in here with my hands, just mixing it around really easy. It's fun. You can have your kids do this. My daughter loves to do this at home because it's, you know, it's daddy daughter time. Oh, sweet. So that's always fun. So then we literally just mix it up. It has It's not really dry. It's not really wet. Right. Right? It just has that texture. Perfect. Yeah, a little perfect. Oh, yeah. See what I'm saying? Nice little... Okay, so then we're just going to toss it right here onto our sheet pan. Oh, wow. Okay. Just kind of layer it down. I'm going to remove my gloves. Wow. That was really good. I'm sorry, Chef David. I took a little taste of the breadcrumbs. That's delicious. I know. Now we're going to toast it to make it even better. I like it. All right. So put that into a 350-degree oven. Okay. We're going to, we want to move it around, though. Okay. Because we don't want to get one side of it too dark. So we're kind of toasting the breadcrumbs. We're toasting it. Yes, we are going to toast it. Okay. And you're going to smell it. So you're going to have all the sauces, the sauce over here. Right. Just cook it off. Plus the panko cooking, it really does make you feel like you're at grandma's house. Okay, well, hold on, grandmas and everybody. We're going to take a quick little break. Stick around. Meatballs, they're coming up next right here on Dinner Diz. Back to Dinner Diaz, where we are hanging out with Chef David Asher from Taverna Costole. Did I say that right? Costale. Costale. You have to do it that way. All right, making the ultimate Italian comfort food. This is so good. So in a moment, we're going to start on some simple homemade meatballs. But before the break, we started on the tomato sauce, which is really the star of the show. Here's what we did. We started with the foundation of the tomato sugo, which is tomato sauce, right? Heating olive oil, adding onions, garlic, a little salt and pepper, some chili flakes. sautéing for Just a couple of minutes and then we crush some tomatoes along with some water, added that basil, bringing it all to a simmer and then setting it to one side so we can make our herb panko crust. Wow. We're going to serve that with our pasta in a little bit. But we combine panko, breadcrumbs, some grated parmesan, a little kosher salt, some pepper, parsley, olive oil, the garlic. Smells great. Put it on that sheet pan. Baking it in the oven for about 20 minutes. So as that goes, it's time for the other star. Yes. So we're going to start on the meatballs. Now, this is something we sell about 2,000 meatballs a week at the restaurant. Oh, my gosh. So we are making meatballs every single day. Our meatballs are only done with beef. If you have friends that put other stuff in their meatballs, you don't have to be their friends anymore. It's just beef, okay? So that's wrong? We're doing it wrong if we... Yes, you're doing it wrong, no, no, this is how we do it at the restaurant, people love it, there's no pork in it, it's just good old fashioned beef, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna add some onions into our little grinder there, garlic as well, whole garlic, not minced, please don't buy minced garlic at the store, just buy whole garlic. I'm guilty, chef, I threw it out. Okay. Well, that's easy. There you go. Okay. Magic. Now, we're just going to puree this. We want it to look like baby food. Okay. Oh, well, let me keep going. So, you want it like a paste? Yeah. More of a paste. Okay. And puree. And that is going to work. Is that good? Now, we're going to take a little olive oil over here. We're going to take this. All right. And grab. Yeah, before that goes right in. That does not go into our meatballs. Okay. Just this. Okay, so what we want to do is just lightly saute this, just a little bit. Is that so you don't take a whole chunk of a bite of piece and garlic in your meatballs and blend it up? You can, if you don't have one of these little. Fancy-dancy little grinders at home. Yeah. You can chop it up. Just chop it up fine as you can, maybe? Yeah, of course. Okay. So just really kind of want to saute that for a moment. Okay. It smells good. Just really getting those aromatics off. You want me to do that? Because I see some more things over here. We'll switch. So another thing that we want to do with our meatball mix is that we want to make a panade. Now, with the panade, it is literally super simple. Yeah, because panade sounds fancy. It is. So it's just panko and milk. What does that mean? Oh, panko and milk. Okay, and why do we do this? Yes. I find that the more egg you put into your meatball, the denser the meatball is. I just said that. I grew up with, like, add an egg or two in the meatball, you know, the meatloaf for the meatball. One's fine. One's fine. But, you know, I see... We don't need an omelet in there. No, exactly. So, we're just making this panade. Okay. It's just milk and panko, pouring the milk in there. We're going to let it set aside for about five minutes. Okay. Okay, because we really want to get... I know, it's getting to my eyes, too. We just want to, you know, have that milk really soak into the panko and... It's kind of, it's like a mush. You're going to see it. Oh, like overnight, I was going to say overnight oats. Yeah, exactly. We're together here. Yeah, we are. All right. So we let that soak up and the sauce is working. This is good. So next we're going to blend some things up. We've got the blender ready. Okay. So we don't need to saute that up too much. It's got a good little. Good little amount going right there. So what we want to do next is we're going to make our blush sauce. Now, our blush sauce, now, if you could pour right about there. Oh, about 750. Okay, so we're going to take that tomato sauce that we did. Got it. Sugo, I should say. Sugo. Sugo. All right. While I go over here, you so go over there. No, I'm kidding. So corny. One more, maybe? Yeah, one more. One more. Okay. So just to show you how versatile the Sugo is, you know, we just made this super easy. We're going to pop it up here. I take a little bit of heavy cream, pour it in. That's how we make the blush sauce, the same tomato sauce that we made, which you can use this for something else. We can freeze that, make a little blush sauce, heavy cream. Now I'm going to just kind of puree this. All right. So bear with me. Now, the taste of a blush compared to what we made in the... Sugo. So we're just adding, basically you're just adding some fat to it, right, with cream. So you're going to have a richer flavor. And then when we puree everything, all that garlic and onion and chili flake and salt and pepper and basil gets mixed up, right? You don't necessarily see it in the sauce, but you taste it. There you go. And it's super important. So there you go. That is our blush. That's it? We're done. Yeah. Okay, well, let's take a quick break then. Okay, let's. Because I need some meatballs in my life, all right? We take this break, come back. We're going to get our hands dirty. I'll get the gloves, all right? So stick around. We're going to mix up the meatballs. Chef David has a pro tip. It's going to be good for making the perfect shape each and every time. It's ahead on Dino Diaz. It's Dino Diaz, and I think we're ready to master some meatballs in an essential tomato sauce. All thanks to Chef David Asher from St. Pete's Taverna. Costale. I love that. So if you missed what we just did. All right, let me take you back. We started blending up. All right. The meatballs did some onions, some garlic and a little puree like baby food, you said. Did a little warm on that, sauteing it. Then we combined more of those panko breadcrumbs with some milk, letting that soak while we blended our blush sauce. This was great. Using that tomato sugo that we did, that sauce that we did earlier, you added heavy cream, blended it up. Bam. There we are. So now I think it's time for the next step. What are we going to put together? Because I'm ready for these meatballs. Okay, so now we're going to make our meatballs, right? Okay. So ground beef. Okay. All right, that's all we're doing. We're going to put our panko mix in there. Okay. Look how that milk really just absorbed in all of that. That's cool. Isn't that great? We're going to add our Parmesan. Oh, just a whole lot. I love that. Yum. Yum. We're going to add some ricotta. Ooh. Some basil. Yum. One egg. I'm going to go salt, pepper. Got to do some S&P. All right. Now you can put this into your little processor, like a little... I like how you get down. Come on, Chef. Come on. There's nothing like pulling that. If you have gloves, great. Under your nails. You got to get dirty with some things. You know, and honestly, when I'm at home, it is so much fun for the kids and I just to be in the kitchen. Yeah. And just making messes and making food together. That's right. Yeah. So just really kind of mixing it up, you know. Okay. We also need a. Finish it with our onions. Okay, do you want me to get that ready to pour in here? Do we need to let this cool first? Oh yeah, so you definitely want it to cool. Okay, there's our puree. And we're gonna keep mixing it. Puree all day and I see that you're really mixing it. Yeah, so don't baby it because sometimes I've heard you shouldn't pack them Too tight you fold it in what it's okay to really get down to make it one, you know Cuz right now we're just making the mix. Okay, so I agree with the whole don't pack your meatball too tight You want to have it a little bit, you know loose, but not too loose because then it kind of falls apart Oh, that's true. Then it's meat sauce, right? Right? We're making meatballs here. Balls, okay Now, you are going to share a secret with us in a second, right, about how to really, like, get down with the get down and make them perfect. Yeah. Nothing wrong with the perfect meatball. Nothing at all. Okay. So, here we go. Okay. So, what I like to do, a little olive oil in your hand. Okay. Okay. And then you want to grab your meatballs. Okay. How much of this grab here? You know. Like a palm size? It's really up to you. How big do you want your meatballs? The way I feel right now, Chef. I'll take that whole bowl. Yeah. But, oh, my gosh, how cute. Is that good? A perfect circle here? Perfect circle. So you just keep rolling it, rolling it, rolling it. All right. All right. Mine is way too small, so let's keep going. All right. While we do this, all right, we're going to put these in. We're going to bake it in this pan, which is the oven-safe pan, obviously. Okay. All right. So we're going to make our meatballs here. And we're going to get this in the oven, all right? While we get these in, finish up one last break. Chef David and I are getting busy here. It's all coming up. More as we put it all together when we get back on Dinner Diaz. Well, we're at the finish line here at Dinner Diaz with Chef David Asher from Taverna Tostale in St. Pete. Okay, just a quick recap about this amazing culinary journey today. We've made a versatile blush sauce, rolled up some ricotta stuffed meatballs, and just pulled them out of the oven. They are wonderful. Here's what we've been doing all this time. We cooked some onions and garlic in a puree, sautéed it, combined it with the ground beef, some milk, ricotta, parmesan cheese, and some basil, egg, a little S&P. Keeping those gloves ready. I love this trick. A little bit of olive oil. Roll them into meatballs. Got them into a pan. 350 for about 15 minutes. And voila, there they are. Now it's time to, I guess, heat up the blush sauce that we made a little bit earlier. Right, Chef? We're going to put this together. Now we're going to make the pasta. This is our ratatouille. So this one is that we do at the restaurant. So what I like to do is just start it out with a little bit of garlic. Oil, butter, shallots, I also add some peeled tomato. Peeled tomato. Oh, nice hot pan, I see, getting it all together. Nice hot pan, just moving it around. Yes. Literally doesn't take much. Now we just want to hit it with our blush sauce. Look at that. Look at that, perfection. Oh, the smell is. It just keeps elevating. It really does. And I like to kind of crush up the little tomatoes. It's up to you. A nice little bite when you're serving it up? Sure. It's on you. Okay. So a little salt. Why not? A little pepper. Always want to season everything. Yes. I put a little bit of cheese in there just to thicken. And then, obviously, basil. Basil. I'm going to go ahead and throw a ratatouille pasta in there. Ooh, the shape is kind of cool there. Look at that. It's like a brain. Perfect for Halloween. That's adorable. That's great. All right. That's awesome. So got that going. Just going to give it a quick little toss. OK. And we're just going to let that reduce for a moment, OK? OK. Now, over on this side, we have, if you could pass me that ladle, that'd be awesome. Now, we have our meatballs that we've been doing. Now, this is that sugo tomato that we got going. Need something from over here. Literally done. Yay. All right. Now, we're going to load up our meatballs. Three of them, and then we're going to hit it with our tomato sugo that we just made from scratch. We did. So easy to do that. It is. We're going to get a little bit of whipped ricotta here, right in the center. Mmm. I like to have some fresh basil. Oh, that looks great. Right there. Ah! Give it some toast points. Why not? Oh, chef. And then if you could pass me the grated parmesan. Okay. I like to add a little grated parmesan over top. And then at the restaurant, we love to finish with Grana Padano. What is it? Grana Padano. Grana Padano. That's a real thing? That's a real thing. That's a really good, yummy look there. So, in Italy, grana is the money. Oh, grana. So, give me the grana. Or they could say it's the grandfather of Parmesan. Oh, I'm ready. I'm ready. You ready? Let's go. Let's go. Cheers. Cheers. Okay. Yep, let's do it. Oh, that was too big. Hold on. What am I doing? Let's get some of that ricotta. Chef, it's so nice and tender, huh? I know. Mmm. Oh, oh, oh, no, that is out of sight. That Grana Padano, the basil, the cheese. It's amazing, right? Fabulous. I see why you make so many. All right. Part two. We're doing our pasta dish. Okay. I'm just going to literally put our ratatouille with our blush sauce that we made from the sugo. Yes. Right in the center. That's beautiful. Now, that little panko that we made. The smell of this panko. Right over top. It's like a nice little, what a way to finish it off. This is so unique, it's so special. It is, I love it. To do that, oh. Finish it with a little whipped ricotta. Mm. A little bit. A little bit. Oh, chef. And Grana Padano. Grana Padano, down to the ground. My goodness, little olive oil drizzle. Done. Done. Oh, let me bring this over here, voila. Yeah. Mm. Oh my goodness, I can't wait. Let's get down in here. You look elated, dude. First of all, can I just say the herb crust on top? Dang it. I know. It's like, wow. It's texture, you know? Let me just make sure I'm tasting that right. Hold on. No, I'm serious. Like, mm, mm, mm. Really good. Mm. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Huge thanks to you. That is out of sight. Mm. Thank you to Chef David for this meatball masterclass. Oh, my goodness. And sharing the secrets of that sauce. Mm-hmm. I see you can put that on everything. Good stuff. All right, to grab the recipe for everything that we made today, including that panko crust, go to dinnerideas.com, where we also have a link to Tarbona Costale. I love that. I'm your culinary chef David. Do it. Use your hands. Get in there. We'll see you next time with more ideas for dinner, as we call them, Dinner Ideas. Now go get to cooking. Man, I am so excited.