Did you know Weston's IT Manager is an Italian cooking genius? We didn't either. Last week, he prepared an incredible meal for Westonians that illuminated this fact for all of us. And we just didn't think it fair not to share it!
He started by dehydrating fresh Italian bread and Roma tomatoes in a
Weston Food Dehydrator.
He then ran each through a
Weston Meat Grinder separately to produce
breadcrumbs and a tomato powder.
The tomato powder served as a base for the tomato sauce (in place of tomato paste - check out our
Tomato Paste recipes for another alternative for tomato paste).
Next, he processed fresh tomatoes through a
Weston #5 Electric Meat Grinder with the
Tomato Strainer attachment attached (You can also use any
Roma by Weston Sauce Maker/Tomato Strainer). This puree went into a pot with the tomato powder and some other not-so-secret ingredients (because we're giving you the recipes later).
With a
Weston Meat Cuber/Tenderizer, he rolled out top round steak to a perfectly thin, tender cut for
braciole. He then rolled it up with the handcrafted
breadcrumbs, pecorino Romano, and his secret ingredient:
locatelli cheese. Yes, there is a brand of Pecorino Romano known as Locatelli. It's fine to use that Locatelli brand as your standard Romano, but you also need fresh
locatelli from your nearest Italian deli. Trust me, there's a difference.
...the
braciole then went into the sauce to cook.
Then, he ran beef, pork, and veal (fresh from the butcher) through the
Weston Meat Grinder for truly homemade
meatballs (short of raising the livestock). These were pan seared and also added to the sauce.
While the
meatballs and
braciole cooked in the sauce, I used our new
Roma Tube Pasta Machine to mix
handmade spinach pasta dough then extrude it into noodles. I laid them out and let them dry while the rest continued to cook. When the sauce,
meatballs, and
braciole were done, I boiled the noodles for a few minutes (homemade pasta always cooks much faster than store-bought).
While I tossed the noodles with olive oil to prevent sticking, our Italian food extraordinaire cut the braciole rolls into slices, then we served the meatballs and braciole over the spinach pasta and topped it all with sauce.
And one of the best things about the whole process was that just a few products took care of the whole meal. The majority of it was done with a
Weston #5 Meat Grinder. Tomatoes, bread, and meat were all processed with the same machine. The
Weston Cuber-Tenderizer took care of the braciole, and the pasta was both mixed and extruded with the new
Roma by Weston Tube Pasta Machine. And because we have such a variety of products and attachments, there are many options as far as preparing this meal or parts of it.
A few fresh ingredients, Weston products, and Italian cooking know-how produced an elaborate meal in a fairly simple way. Check out our IT Manager/Secret Neapolitan Cooking Master's recipes below:
Breadcrumbs
Tomato Paste
Pasta Sauce
Braciole
Meatballs
Spinach Pasta
