Meatballs With Green-Peppercorn Sauce

Meatballs With Green-Peppercorn Sauce (photo) Larger photo

Veal, pork and beef meatballs served in a green-peppercorn sauce with shallots, Dijon, sherry vinegar, brandy, red wine, port, stock and cream.

Note, this recipe makes a lot more sauce than we actually needed for the meatballs. But, the sauce is so good, any leftover can be mixed in with rice or pasta.

  • Prep time: 25 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Sauce:

  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 medium shallots, minced
  • 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 2 Tbsp sherry wine vinegar
  • ½ cup brandy
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1 cup port
  • 2 cups beef stock or chicken stock
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons green peppercorns in brine, drained and crushed
  • Coarse salt, to taste

Meatballs:

  • 2 ½-inch thick slices white bread, crusts removed
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • ½ pound ground veal
  • ½ pound ground pork
  • ½ pound ground beef
  • 1½ teaspoons coarse salt
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
  • ½ cup fresh ricotta cheese
  • ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup olive oil

Method

1 To make the meatballs, soak the bread in milk until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain the milk and squeeze the bread out slightly. In a large mixing bowl, combine the bread, veal, pork, beef, salt, pepper, Parmigiano-Reggiano, ricotta, egg and parsley. Mix well enough to combine the ingredients, but just enough — if you work the mixture too long your meatballs will become tough. Roll into meatballs the size of golf balls, set on a tray and put in the fridge to firm up.

2 To make the sauce, heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the shallots and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add the mustard, brandy and sherry vinegar and reduce to half, about 3-4 minutes. If you are using dried peppercorns, add them here.

3 Add the red wine and port and reduce by half, about 15 minutes. Take the meatballs out of the fridge now. Add the stock to the sauce and reduce the mixture by half again, about 20 minutes. If you are using brined green peppercorns add them and salt to taste.

4 Heat the ¼ cup olive oil a large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Fry the meatballs until crispy on the outside and cooked through on the inside, about 12 minutes. Do this in batches so that the meatballs are not crowded. As the batches of meatballs are cooked, transfer them to 300-degree oven to stay warm while you finish cooking the meatballs and sauce.

5 When all the meatballs have been cooked, add them to the sauce and coat them well. Bring to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes, then turn off the heat and transfer the meatballs to a platter or to plates. Stir the heavy cream into the sauce and serve.

Yield: Serves 6.

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Comments

  1. lindy

    I’ve been enjoying and loving your site with all your mouthwatering photos.

    I too enjoy cooking (& eating)! These meatballs look so delicious !! Thank you for sharing the recipe !! I will love to try this!

  2. Kalyn

    I’ve already bookmarked this one. It does sound amazing. (I’d switch the white bread for whole wheat for my diet, but otherwise it sounds great.)

  4. Elise

    Hi I Brown, green peppercorns in brine look a little like capers, but smaller. I think you would find them in the condiment section of your grocery store, or near where they sell capers. You can also buy them online at Amazon.com.

  6. Elise

    Hi Chez Megane – We served it over rice. In the WSJ, the chefs served it with I think a potato celery root mash. It was wonderful with rice. Bet it would be good over egg noodles too.

  7. johnr

    I tried this a couple days ago, and I just have to say it was amazing. My sauce turned out more purple than red (I think because I used a Malbec wine and strong port), but it was still tasty, and the friends loved it.

  8. Garlicer

    I followed the sauce recipe to the letter and it tasted almost like it was off. There were no full flavours or any identifiable mix of such. The meatballs were so not terrific. I don’t know what I did wrong but the entire recipe was a bland disappointment, it was abominable.
    I used an Auzzy. Red, Cab/Shiraz blend named ‘Long Flat’, the brandy used was French, St Remy Napoleon Brandy and for the Port I used an Auzzy Tawny Port. Perhaps I used a bad combination? I went through each reduction with great care and attention. I did reduce the brandy only slightly, after the alcohol had been cooked off as the recipe did not call for that specifically. The wine and port were added and reduced by half and then added the stock (homemade) and reduced it by half again.
    I use only fresh ingredients; the veal, pork and beef were fresh on the day and I used 35% real cream, which was also purchased the day of cooking.
    I’ve been doing sauces and stocks for many years without too many mistakes or bad sauces so I have to think that either my tastes are far from normal or I screwed something up. Any suggestions?
    Garlicer

    Note from Elise: Hi Garlicer, how disappointing! I have no idea what might have gone wrong. We loved this sauce, and the meatballs.