Beet risotto; Spiced potatoes; Lemon tart; Caramel corn; and Cranberry-pumpkin bars

[stellar_dust]

March was A Lot and I fell behind on both cooking and posting about it. Here are some catching-up recipes, ( three desserts and two veggie dishes )

And with that, I got a bingo! I'm going to try for a blackout.

pork and ricotta meatballs

[musesfool]

This afternoon I made pork and ricotta meatballs. It's a New York Times link, so I'll paste the recipe in as it's probably paywalled.

( ingredients )

( instructions )

I heated my oven to 400°F because I thought the meatballs would burn at 425, and also because I wanted to simmer them in tomato sauce for 45 minutes. (For this purpose, I used Marcella Hazan's basic tomato sauce, which cooks in about 45 minutes - it's not a new recipe for me, but it is the easiest sauce I've ever made, so I recommend it, especially if you're pressed for time.)

I also seasoned the meat mixture with several shakes of Italian seasoning because otherwise the meatballs would basically be unseasoned, which seemed weird to me. I also only used 1/2 tsp of salt because I have Morton's kosher salt which is somehow saltier than Diamond kosher salt, so I always cut it down by at least half.

I got 16 meatballs instead of the 12 the recipe suggests, but I also made them slightly smaller than what the recipe suggests, i.e., the size I usually make meatballs (about the size of a ping pong ball, or roughly 1.5" in diameter). When I took them out of the oven, they were light brown all over and darker brown/crisp on the bottom. Then I put them in the pot of sauce and let them simmer for 45 minutes.

They are good meatballs - nice texture, nice flavor, easy enough to make, though softer than the ones I usually make (either with ground beef or with a beef-pork mix, and fried before simmering in the sauce). If you don't eat pork, the recipe recommends using ground chicken, and I bet turkey would work as well.