Bobby Flay Vs. Tony Danza: Whose Meatballs Are Better?
When we found out that Tony Danza had a good meatball recipe, we were overcome with excitement. He's not the kind of celeb who cooks to be trendy. (Or least we didn't think he would be.) We were very eager to test his recipe, but we needed something to compare it to. Enter: Bobby Flay.
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If you like to cook, chances are very high that you've cooked with Flay - either by way of TV or cookbook. Most of his dishes are highly rated on FoodNetwork.com, including his meatball recipe. If Danza's recipe could compete with his, we thought, it must be pretty dang good. So we threw a snackdown.
Bobby calls for three types of ground meat: beef, pork and veal. The pork, he claims on a (very old) episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay, helps add moisture while the beef brings the richness and the veal lightens it all up. Also in the meatball: sautéed garlic, eggs, Parmesan, bread crumbs, and parsley. After rolling the meatballs, he fries them up in a good amount of olive oil - 1 whole cup! - before making the sauce.
The sauce is pretty simple, aside from his annoying insistence on using plum tomatoes that have been puréed in blender. Why not just use crushed tomatoes? We're not sure. But we followed his recipe to a tee anyways. The final plate of spaghetti wasn't bad, but it wasn't five stars. Let's just say that if a friend made the whole meal for dinner, we'd happily finish our serving and feed said friend polite compliments. But the sauce was forgettable and the meatballs a little boring. We expected more from the Food Network host.
Tony says you can use any kind of meat you want - beef, pork, turkey, veal, even chicken. (We decided to keep it classic with beef.) He calls for mixing the meat with eggs, garlic, bread crumbs, parm, and milk then rolls the balls in flour before frying. The flour helps achieve a caramelized crust. One point for Tony!
Along with the meatballs, Tony's "Sunday Sauce" also includes pork spareribs (?!?!?), red wine, Parmesan, and 4 more cloves of garlic (in addition to the 9 that were used for the meatballs). Though his sauce takes longer and his recipe is, at times, a little confusing to follow, we were seriously impressed. The meatballs were crazy tender and the sauce super rich. Sorry for doubting the spareribs, Tony.
THE VERDICT
Every single person voted for Tony Danza. And it wasn't just because they wanted him to win (though many of us did). The taste test, as always, was blind.
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