Carbone Has a Coffee Table Book
Make Mario Carbone's meatballs to celebrate
When Carbone opened in New York City in 2013, it became a worldwide sensation for the instant nostalgia of chef Mario Carbone’s red sauce classics.
The restaurant, which paired its food with a healthy dose of showmanship, became New York’s “it” restaurant, with celebrities like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian frequenting the colorful retro dining room. The restaurant’s spicy vodka rigatoni became its own internet sensation when influencers started devouring the dish on Instagram and TikTok.
Carbone quickly grew, opening locations in Miami Beach, Dallas, Las Vegas, Doha, Hong Kong, and Riyadh that are as well-received as the flagship. The restaurant also markets a line of at-home sauces (and clothing) under the Carbone Fine Foods label.
Now, Carbone has released a coffee table book with Assouline. Carbone by Assouline tells the story of the making of the restaurant with 150 pictures and numerous recipes. If you still can’t snag a reservation at the Carbone nearest you, Broken Palate is sharing Mario Carbone’s meatball recipe with our readers.
Carbone co-founder Mario Carbone uses sweet Italian sausage instead of ground pork in the recipe, along with milk-soaked bread instead of breadcrumbs. The meatballs are gently fried in olive oil and covered in tomato sauce (make it from scratch or use jarred Carbone sauce), before being cooked low and slow. “We insist on mixing the blend by hand, gently folding the ingredients with the same delicacy required to make a soufflé, to achieve the tenderest result,” says Carbone.
Mario’s Meatballs
Serves 6
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Meatballs
Ingredients
2 - ¼ cups of day-old or stale white bread, crust removed, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 Cup plus 3 tbsp of whole milk
3 Tbsp of olive oil, plus more
½ cup of finely chopped yellow onion
12 cloves garlic, finely chopped
⅓ cup of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp of kosher salt
½ pound of ground beef, preferably 80/20
12 ounces ground veal
12 ounces of sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup of finely grated 24-month-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions
Place the bread and milk in a small bowl and soak them together.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent but not browned, 16-18 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and scrape everything into a large bowl.
Stir the parsley and salt into the large bowl and cool to room temperature.
Once cooled, add the ground meats, egg, and Parmigiano-Reggiano to the bowl and gently combine until evenly mixed.
Add the soaked bread last, discarding any milk that was not soaked up, and continue to mix gently, making sure not to overmix.
Form into 2 ¼ inch balls; you should get about 22 meatballs.
Transfer to a plate and refrigerate while you make the tomato sauce.
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
5 - ½ cups of canned crushed tomatoes
3 - ½ tsps of kosher salt
2 - ¼ tsps of granulated sugar
1 tbsp of olive oil
Instructions
In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Once the sauce comes to a simmer, remove the pan from the heat.
Alternative
Two Jars of Carbone Fine Foods Marinara Sauce
To Serve
Ingredients
Olive oil as needed to cook
¾ Cup of finely grated 24-month-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more to freshly grate for garnish.
¼ cup finishing olive oil
Picked basil leaves, fried, to garnish
Cooking Instructions
Ladle about 1 heaping cup of the tomato sauce into a large roasting pan or ceramic baking dish and spread over the bottom; keep the remaining sauce nearby while you cook.
Heat a large skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium-high heat, and coat the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil.
Working in batches, add just enough meatballs to fit loosely in the pan and cook, turning as needed until lightly browned all over, 4 to 6 minutes per batch.
Add the cooked meatballs to the roasting pan with tomato sauce, nestling them into a single layer.
Once all done, top the meatballs with ¾ cups of grated parmigiano-reggiano.
Heat the oven to 325 F.
Cover the pan of meatballs tightly with foil, and bake until the internal temperature of the meatballs reaches 140 F on an instant-read thermometer, 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, rewarm the tomato sauce over low heat.
Once the meatballs come out of the oven, uncover the pan and gently transfer each meatball to the pot of sauce, turning each to ensure they’re coated in sauce.
Finish cooking the meatballs in the sauce until its internal temperature reaches 160 F, about 5 minutes, and remove the pan from the heat.
Serving Instructions
Spoon the meatballs onto a large serving platter or individual dishes and top with spoonfuls of sauce.
Freshly grate Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top and drizzle with the finishing olive oil.
Top each meatball with a fried basil leaf to serve.