‘Jayni’ features dishes for church fund-raiser

Join “Jayni’s Kitchen” this week for “Cafe Italiano: Corpus Christi Italian Festival with Matt Lomshek.”

Matt Lomshek will share his grandmother’s recipes with host Jayni Carey. The following recipes are part of the menu for the third annual Cafe Italiano Festival on Sept. 18.

A new show airs at 6:30 p.m. each Tuesday on Sunflower Broadband Channel 6. The show also is broadcast at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday; 9 a.m., 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., Wednesday; 9:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday; 9:30 a.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Mamma’s Sesso’s Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce


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15 fresh Roma tomatoes

1 cup olive oil

8 to 10 garlic cloves, chopped

8 to 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped

salt and black pepper, to taste

2 cups shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided

1 pound dried spaghetti

fresh basil sprigs

To skin the tomatoes, make an “x” on the blossom end of each tomato. Drop the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water from 2 to 3 minutes, until the skins begin to shrivel. Remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon and immerse them briefly in ice water to cool. Remove the skins.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for about 2 minutes. Add the skinned tomatoes and mash them with a potato masher. Simmer the sauce for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the fresh basil, salt and pepper and simmer the tomato sauce for 2 to 3 minutes more. Stir in 1 cup of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Boil the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling, salted water until tender. Serve the sauce over the spaghetti and pass the remaining cheese. Garnish with fresh basil sprigs. Serves 8. May be used with following recipe.

Nana Zacarello’s Italian Meatballs

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1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 1/2 pounds ground pork

5 eggs

1 cup Romano cheese, grated

1/2 cup parsley, stemmed and chopped

1/2 loaf French or Italian bread

4 ounces (1 sleeve) saltine crackers, crushed

2 to 3 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

1 48-ounce can vegetable shortening

fresh Italian parsley sprigs

In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, pork, eggs, cheese and parsley. Cut the bread into pieces and process in a food processor to make coarse bread crumbs. Add the bread crumbs to the meat mixture along with the crushed crackers, salt and pepper. Make the meatballs about 1 1/2-inches in diameter.

Heat the shortening over high heat in a large pot or Dutch oven. Fry a few of the meatballs at a time until well-browned and cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on paper towels. When all of the meatballs are cooked, transfer them to a large serving platter and garnish with Italian parsley sprigs.

Serve the meatballs as an antipasto, or along side spaghetti.