I am a huge fan of Olympia Dukakis. I love her in Moonstruck (my guilty pleasure)
and I love her as Anna Madrigal in Tales of the City.
She’s just ace. Plus, I know now, she really can cook. Because these meatballs are divine.
Oooh they were good! I knew they would be when I was getting all the bits and pieces together…
There’s oregano in there, and Dijon mustard, and soy sauce… Mmmm – the meatball mix smelled great even before I started cooking.
I was a bit unsure if I was making the meatballs a bit small. Olympia says that the recipe makes 36 walnut-sized meatballs and it looked as though I was going to get a lot more than that out of the mix. I asked Mr Rathbone, “Which of these is most like the size of a walnut?” To which his response was, “None of them.” After a bit of a discussion in transpired that walnut sized to him would mean the size of a shelled walnut. I shall make a note about that in the book! In the end, I used about half of the mix and made 25 meatballs. I said to Mr R, “How many meatballs can you eat?” His response was, “I would say a minimum of 6.”
Cor, they really were very tasty indeed. I think Mr R started off with 6, then went back for another…
This was his sad face when I reminded him of the little ditty about the man who was so poor, he could only afford one meatball…
I am fiddling around with this recipe for the Columbo cookbook, but if you would like it, just drop me a line via the Contact page. Olympia Dukakis was in Columbo? No, if only. I think she would have made a brilliant opponent for the Lieutenant. But this recipe will accompany the episode that stars her hubby Agenda For Murder. Alas, I don’t have a recipe for either the villain of the piece, Patrick McGoohan, or his victim Louis Zorich, so I’m hoping Columbo fans will forgive me for suggesting this recipe to go with that episode.
For those who know the episode well, I will of course also be suggesting a cheeseboard…
