Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta

Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta

I saw this recipe just a couple of days ago that Pioneer Woman posted, and just drooled. I said right then and there, “I am SO making this!” The other great thing is if you go to her website and pin her post on Pinterest, Land O’ Lakes will donate 9 meals to Feeding America®, up to 2.7 million meals! I’ll give you the link down below.

My hubs helped with some of the prep, which was nice, but really there is not a lot to this. I adapted the recipe by halving it for our smaller family, and by baking the meatballs after browning them, not only because I’m terrible meatball maker, apparently, but because they were falling apart in the skillet. So what I did was after they were mostly browned on the outside, I took them out of the skillet to cool a bit, preheated the oven to 400 degrees, compacted them back into sort of round, then baked them for 15 minutes.

Meatballs and Seasonings

The plus about doing it that way is that you won’t have all that extra grease in the pan. I also omitted the beef bouillon and salt. Believe me there is enough flavor and salt in the rest of the ingredients that you will not miss it at all!

Changes I will make next time: I would use 2 1/2 cups of beef broth total. Hubby said he would have liked more gravy with it. Second would be to use flour instead of corn starch. Even though the gravy was “glossy” like the original recipe said it would be, I think the flour would make it all stick to the noodles better.

Even so, the fam ate it up and I’m good with that. The hubs called it a “glorified hamburger over noodles.” LOL! He said he would eat it again with those additional changes, though. Although the Pioneer Woman called this Salisbury Steak Meatballs, I didn’t find it to taste anything like that. Yep, a glorified hamburger. But if you want a fairly simple recipe to feed the family with ground beef and pasta, this is a great change of pace. 🙂

Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman, Salisbury Steak Meatballs

SPECIAL NOTE: To help donate 9 meals to the hungry, click the following link and pin on Pinterest! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/salisbury-steak-meatballs. Thank You!

1 pound ground beef
3/8 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/8 cup spicy brown mustard
1/8 cup ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Table Blend (or salt)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 tablespoon corn starch (or flour) mixed with 1/2 cup beef broth
1 1/2 to 2 cups homemade or low-sodium beef broth, divided
1/2 teaspoon additional Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons additional ketchup
1/4 teaspoon Liquid Smoke (I used Stubb’s)
8 ounces wide egg noodles
Dried minced parsley

In a medium bowl, combine the first seven ingredients and mix well with clean hands. Roll and compact into meatballs. I didn’t do such a great job of compacting them, maybe you are better. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a large skillet, then sear over medium-high heat on all sides until browned. Remove to a plate to cool and meanwhile preheat your oven to 400 degrees. This is also a good time to put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta.

Seared Meatballs

Add one more tablespoon of butter to the skillet (with all the leftover browned burger bits) and add in the onions. Reduce heat to medium and saute them for about 10 minutes until fairly soft. While the onions are cooking, you can re-compact your meatballs up and place on a parchment or foil-lined pan in one layer and cook in oven for 15 minutes.

Baked Meatballs

Remove and set aside if your timing is off, like mine was. It’s choreography, I tell you!

Cooking the Onions with Browned Bits

Once the onions are softened, add the cornstarch or flour slurry to the skillet, scraping up all the yummy browned bits. Then add the rest of the beef broth, the additional Worcestershire and ketchup and the Liquid Smoke, then mix well, bringing up to a simmer (lower heat once it does).

Onions and Gravy

Now add your pasta to the boiling water. Cook pasta until al dente, drain, and pour onto a large plate or in bowl. The onions and  gravy should be nice and done now, so pour the mixture over the pasta, top with the meatballs, sprinkle some parsley over it, scoop into bowls, and chow down. Serve if you like with a side salad, French bread, and fruit.

Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

 

Salisbury Steak Dinner with Mushroom and Onion Gravy

Salisbury Steak

This is the first time I’ve made this dinner. Salisbury Steak had always reminded me of those ubiquitous frozen dinners from my childhood and could never get past the “taste” in my mind of the awful frozen patty in the equally awful gravy and shriveled peas.

But then I ran across the recipe for it from Libby at her Lemony Thyme foodie blog, and her beautiful photos and descriptions compelled me to overcome my distaste of the meal. I adapted the recipe a bit based on her encouragement to take the meal where it “makes you and yours complete and comfortable.” So I added lots of thin-sliced sweet onions to the gravy, because in my mind onions can make most anything complete! I typically don’t have any fresh thyme on hand, and I have found the brand of dried thyme I have is very overpowering even in small amounts. I have some beautifully fragrant sweet dried oregano, and decided it would complement the gravy quite nicely and used that instead of thyme.

The other thing that made this dish complete and comfortable was a wonderfully rich, homemade beef broth, fresh-made that day! Homemade broth/stock is unparalleled to the store-bought variety.

Simmering Beef Broth

And it makes your house smell so cozy all day! Yes, it takes a lot of time to make, but not much hands on time at all. I upped the ante on flavor for this batch by basting the beef bones with tomato paste halfway through the roasting time, and deglazing the roasting pan with a 1/4 cup of red wine and adding it to the stock pot. I also let it simmer for a full 6 hours. Yowza, what a tasty batch of beef broth! You can read my original method here: How to Make Homemade Beef Broth. I also used the rest of my frozen pearl onions I used in the Coq Au Vin recipe instead of regular onions. I wasn’t sure when I’d use pearl onions again, so this seemed a good time to finish off that bag.

I highly encourage you to use the tomato paste and red wine method. If you use that method, don’t use a roasting bag as instructed but place the bones directly in a roasting pan and then deglaze with wine or broth/water. You can refrigerate the broth overnight and discard any fat grease that solidifies at the top, and then freeze in portions in zip-top baggies. I didn’t get any photos in the process of making it this time (except for the final photo), as I was working and had to get it all prepared and on the stove during my lunch break.

Salisbury Steak Dinner

Do you want the recipe already? OK, here it is:

Salisbury Steak Dinner with Mushroom and Onion Gravy
Adapted from this recipe at Lemony Thyme

For the Salisbury Steak:
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup finely diced sweet onion
1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs, unseasoned
1 egg, whisked
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Lots of ground black pepper, to taste
Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb, or salt, to taste
1 tablespoon butter

Salisbury Steak Patty Ingredients

For the Mushroom and Onion Gravy:
2 tablespoons butter
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon dried, crushed oregano
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups homemade or low sodium beef broth
Ground black pepper to taste
Mrs. Dash Table Blend, or salt, to taste

First off, (no ingredient list for this part) get your potatoes peeled and boiling. Make your mashed potatoes as you usually do when the potatoes are cooked through like right in the middle of gravy stirring time. OR, have your partner do all that for you because you shout out out “that you are too busy stirring gravy to finish the potatoes!” – ‘K?

Combine the Salisbury Steak ingredients (except the butter) in a bowl and form into 4 patties. Hey did you notice my glass of fresh parsley in the background in the photo below? I can keep fresh parsley and cilantro in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks that way. Genius! Untie your bunch, add to a glass, add water, then cover in the thin vegetable bag you put it in when you bought it. That parsley you see is seriously almost three weeks old. (Refresh water as needed.) Go do it!

Salisbury Steak Patties and Parsley

I digress. Now melt the 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, and cook the patties about 5 minutes on each side until browned. Remove from the skillet to a plate and set aside.

Fried Salisbury Steak Patties

In the same skillet over medium heat, add the other 2 tablespoons of butter, mushrooms, and cook, stirring often, until they start to release their liquid, at least 7 to 10 minutes. Add the oregano (or other herb to taste, fresh or dried).

Mushrooms and Onions

Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables, stirring and mashing the flour to incorporate. Gradually stir in the beef broth, whisking constantly. You might want to up the heat a tad at this point. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the gravy is fairly thickened, then nestle the beef patties into the gravy. Simmer the patties for about 10 more minutes until cooked through, flipping them over halfway through the simmering process.

Sailsbury Steak Patties in Gravy

Serve each “steak” over mashed potatoes slathered with a generous serving of the mushroom and onion gravy and sprinkled with fresh parsley, and a side vegetable of choice. I used cooked frozen peas, and would have loved to used fresh spring peas but they are not available yet in my area. Just don’t overcook the peas, mind you!

My entire family devoured every morsel of this meal off their plate. I will never pooh-pooh Salisbury Steak dinner again! And please, don’t forget I have a handy-dandy printable recipe below if you click on the PDF image!

Salisbury Steak Meal

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!