Mostacciole with Meatballs, Ribs and Sausage and Heart Attack Garlic Bread

This is a dish I learned I believe when I was in High School.  I learned it from a friend who was Italian and lived a few doors down from me along with homemade raviolis.  I don't make it too often as it takes a few hours, but if your going to be around the house for 4-5 hours, it really isn't that much work to make.  As a matter of fact, this would make a great Christmas Eve meal if you're looking for something out of the ordinary and need to feed a lot of people.  Here goes:

Mostacciole

  

Ingredients:

·       Sauce:           

·       8 cloves garlic, pressed             

·       1/2 onion, chopped

·       1/3 cup olive oil                        

·       6 oz. tomato paste                     

·       2 cups water  

·       28 oz. tomato puree                  

·       28 oz. crushed tomatoes           

·       10 cups water

·       basil, salt and oregano to taste  

·       1-2 lb. mostacciole noodles      

·       Meat:            

·       1 1/2 lb. ground beef                 

·       5 eggs            

·       1 tsp. salt and pepper                 

·       1/4 tsp. garlic powder                

·       1 tbsp. parsley                            

·       1/4 cup Romano cheese (grated)   

·       1 cup Italian style bread crumbs

·       6-8 boneless country style ribs 

·       1 lb. Italian sausage                                                  

 Directions:

    In an 10+ quart pot, sauté garlic and onion in olive oil until tender.  Add tomato paste and mix well (low heat).  Add 2 cups water and simmer a minute.  Add tomato puree and crushed tomatoes.  Stir in about 10 cups water.  Raise heat to medium-high. 

    When sauce comes to a boil, add salt to taste, about 1 tbsp. basil, and a pinch of oregano.  Simmer for 1 hour. 

    Preheat oven to 350º. 

    Mix ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, Romano cheese, and bread crumbs  well.  Form into 2-3” balls.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes (turn over in 15 minutes).  Makes about 23+ meatballs. 

    Fry ribs and sausage until brown on all sides. 

    After sauce has boiled an hour, add meatballs, sausage and country style ribs.  Slow boil about 3 more hours, stirring frequently.   

    In a large pot, bring water to boil for noodles.  Cook per package directions.  Drain pasta and pour enough sauce over noodles to give a light coating.  Plate pasta and serve sauce with meat over noodles.  Can also grate Romano cheese over mostacciole.

Servings:  8-10

You initially simmer the sauce for an hour before adding the meat.  If you try the sauce, it might seem a bit bland, but don't panic.  A lot of the flavor will come from the meats.  

For the next 3 hours you don't want it at a high boil, but you don't want it too low because you need the sauce to thicken up a bit.  And make sure you stir it once in a while to keep it from scorching the bottom.  

When you're ready to serve the sauce, you can serve the meat as is but I like to cut the ribs and sausage into smaller pieces so there's enough to go around.  I use large kitchen shears to cut them up.  The ribs will be pretty tender.  

Once in a while my co-workers and I would have lunch at Stuart Anderson's Black Angus restaurant.  They would have a soup and garlic bread special for lunch and the garlic bread was so different and loaded with flavor.  And once I get obsessed with a recipe, I have to find it and so I searched online.  I've called it Black Angus Garlic Bread for years, but recently a group of friends started calling it Kim's Heart Attack Bread because it isn't actually the most healthful of recipes.  But when you want to wow a group, you'll want to bring this baby out.  They just go crazy for it!

Heart Attack Garlic Cheese Bread

  

Ingredients:

·       1 loaf French Bread    

·       1/2 cup unsalted butter         

·       1 cup shredded jack cheese

·       1/2 cup Asiago cheese, grated       

·       1 cup mayonnaise        

·       1 bunch green onions, white party only, chopped      

·       3 cloves garlic, pressed         

 Directions:

    Preheat oven to 350º. 

    Split French bread into halves horizontally.  Place on a large rimmed cookie sheet

    Mix butter, cheeses, mayonnaise, green onions, and garlic in a bowl, blending well.  Spread the cut side of bread with spread. 

    Bake for 7 minutes, then place under broiler about 1-2 minutes longer (watch carefully). Cut into slices and serve.

Servings:  12-16 slices   

For the loaf of French bread, do not go fancy.  You want just the basic, fluffy French bread loaf.  I like Albertson's because it just has the best flavor.  You really only want to use unsalted butter because the Asiago cheese can be a tiny bit salty so you don't want to add any more salt.  When I started making this bread, Asiago cheese was pretty difficult to find.  I pretty much could only find it at Alberton's, but now it's gotten very popular so it shouldn't be any trouble finding it.  It use to be described as Poor Man's Parmesan, but I love it.  To me it has a stronger flavor with a bit of salty nuttiness.  You may be tempted to switch it with Parmesan or Romano, but that will be a big mistake.    It will not remotely taste the same.  Believe me, I've done it and regretted it.  The last thing I suggest is that you only use the white part of the green onions.  I've chopped up the whole thing and when I stirred it all together, the green parts turned the mixture green.  I didn't have an issue with it, but some people do so just stick with the white part.

I gave this recipe to several ladies at my ceramics class and every year the store would have a Christmas party.  Sometimes the husbands would attend and I was talking to one of them.  He had come to one of my gatherings and had tasted it and loved it but when his wife made it, he insisted it didn't taste the same.  I asked her if she replaced the Asiago with Parmesan and she was insistent she didn't.  I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong so I have her tell me step by step what she did.  At the end, she said she thought the mixture was too much for just one loaf split in half and spread on the halves so she divided it up between two loaves.  That was it!  You might be tempted to do the same because the thickness can be a bit intimidating, but don't.  It will really affect the flavor.  I find that it usually only needs about 1 1/2 minutes under the broiler.  Any longer and it gets too burnt on the edges.  Yours could be different so watch it carefully.  Allow the bread to cool down and firm up before you cut it into slices or it will be a big mess.  Enjoy!