Here’s a lovely little appetizer that you’re going to want to bookmark: Chicken Marsala Meatballs.

These tasty little bites are made with deliciously nutty Parmesan cheese and ground chicken, so they stay moist. Marsala wine is a fortified wine from Sicily that gives food, especially sauces, a light sweetness with hints of tamarind and vanilla, and overall deepens the flavor of the dish.

I made Chicken Marsala Meatballs as an appetizer, but you can serve them with the rich wine sauce as a main course over rice or pasta.

Here’s the tutorial… the printable recipe follows!

 

Chicken Marsala Meatballs

1. Gather your ingredients: 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided; ¼ cup finely chopped parsley; 1 pound ground chicken (I used thigh meat); ½ cup breadcrumbs; 2 cloves finely chopped garlic; 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 tablespoons olive oil; ¼ cup chicken broth; ¼ cup Marsala wine.

 

2. Finely grate the Parmesan cheese. Place ½ cup on a plate; set aside remaining ¼ cup. 

 

3. Finely chop the parsley; set aside.

 

 

4. Place the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper and egg in a large mixing bowl. Blend with your hands or a spoon until well incorporated.

 

5. Form into 1-inch balls.

 

 

6. Roll each chicken meatball in the Parmesan cheese on the plate; set aside.

 

 

7. Heat butter and oil in a large skillet on medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Add meatballs and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often until lightly browned on all sides.

 

8. Add chicken broth and Marsala wine. Cover and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until cooked through. 

 

9. Remove from pan and top with remaining cheese and parsley. Serve immediately.

 

I shared this recipe On the Monday Handmade Linkup Party... Come over and take a look!

“The Help” made me hungry.

Y’all know I grew up in the South and even though my roots are Latina I still love the straight-forward simplicity of southern cuisine. What you see is what you get. Not a lot of nuance here (except in barbecue). Fried chicken is crisp and juicy. Peach pie tastes like peaches.

I was reminded of just how much I miss southern cooking while reading “The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett. As far as southern cooking goes, this book is a page-turner.

I began feeling hungry on page three, with Aibileen’s chicken salad. Even though the book doesn’t say, I know exactly how she made that chicken salad. White breast meat, hand chopped into tiny cubes. Celery, mayo and salt. No onions. No pickles. Chilled.

Deviled eggs on page six. Pristine white halves of eggs filled with a fluffy bright yellow yolk mixture of prepared mustard, mayo, a tiny bit of sweet pickle relish, salt and pepper. Aibileen probably sprinkled a little paprika on top to make it a kinda fancy, since she was serving it at a bridge club luncheon.

The next page is ham sandwiches. I know they weren’t slapped together with packaged ham. These are delicate bite-size sandwiches made with (I’ll bet) home roasted ham on crust-less white bread with a smidge of mayo to hold the whole thing together.

But it was two words on page eight that brought a rush of childhood food memories flooding back: caramel cake. I hadn’t had caramel cake since I was a kid on a family vacation in the Ozarks. I loved that vacation for two reasons: Papa Daddy took me fishing with him before the sun was up, and I had my first bite of a delicate, sweet piece of heaven called caramel cake.

As you read “The Help,” you’ll find other classic southern food gems, like what’s growing in the gardens (eggplant, okra, gourds, tomatoes, turnip greens) and that Crisco is “the most important invention in the kitchen since jarred mayonnaise.”

Two things didn’t whet my appetite: A poke salad (which is made from pokeweed and is extremely poisonous unless you know exactly how to prepare it) and Minny’s special chocolate pie for Miss Hilly… and that’s all I’m going to say about that (I don’t want to spoil your reading pleasure).

I’ve always “cooked what I’m reading,” whether it be Indian writer Anuradha Roy’s “An Atlas of Impossible Longing,” or David McCullough’s “The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris.” But “The Help” was special because it brought back a rush of childhood food memories. But I must confess, “The Help” didn’t help Mama stay on her diet. No sireee….