Cult Italian Restaurant Carbone Releases a New Book—With Several of Their Secret Recipes

These days, the name Carbone could mean a lot of things: a private club that costs $20,000 a year, a line of gourmet pasta sauces, or a restaurant in New York, Las Vegas, Miami, or Dallas. But before Carbone was, well, all of the above, it was a small hole-in-the-wall on Thompson Street founded by three young restaurateurs: Jeffrey Zalanick, Mario Carbone, and Rich Torrisi.

“In 2012, when we were barely in our thirties, the three of us banded together to bring new energy and soul to the fine-dining landscape by building an Italian American restaurant. A red-sauce joint. A tradition that nobody at the time would bet their entire future on. To us, at least, it seemed like the perfect vehicle to achieve our goal. This culinary style, so deeply rooted in the history of our city, had been relegated to a kind of purgatory. Everybody seemed to love these restaurants, but they had been conditioned to never expect greatness when they visited them,” they write in the forward for their new book, Carbone, published tomorrow by Assouline.

The cover of Carbone, out this month from Assouline.

Photo: Courtesy of Assouline

Part oral history and part cookbook, Carbone chronicles how, exactly, their culinary empire was built out of a combination of hard work, clout, and spicy rigatoni. “We were not interested in creating a dish you had never had before. We wanted to serve you the most outstandingly perfect version of what you have had hundreds, if not thousands of times at home, at restaurants, at parties, everywhere,” Jeff Zalanick says.

Instructions for several of those dishes are included within the book’s pages, including the linguine vongole, chicken scarpariello, and their signature tableside Caesar salad. Below, the team behind Carbone shares the recipe for their off-the-menu favorite: Mario’s Meatballs.

“For our meatballs, we use sweet Italian sausage instead of ground pork, which provides distinctly Italian American umami,” Carbone says. We also use milk-soaked bread instead of breadcrumbs, which evokes a panada, the centuries-old European technique for making hearty boiled bread to infuse with all sorts of flavors, both savory and sweet. The meatballs are gently fried in olive oil and smothered in tomato sauce before being cooked low and slow to a precise internal temperature, just like a Sunday roast.”

Photo: Oliver Pilcher / Courtesy of Assouline

Mario’s Meatballs

Serves 6

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

• 2 1/4 cups day-old or stale white bread, crust removed, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup plus 3 tbsp whole milk
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped yellow onion
• 12 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, preferably 80/20
• 12 ounces ground veal
• 12 ounces sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup finely grated 24-month-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. Place the bread and milk in a small bowl and let soak together.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent but not browned, 16 to 18 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and scrape everything into a large bowl. Stir in the parsley and salt and cool to room temperature.
3. Once cooled, add the ground meats, egg, and Parmigiano-Reggiano to the bowl. Gently combine until evenly mixed. Add the soaked bread last, discarding any milk that was not soaked up, and continue to mix gently, making sure not to overmix. Form into 2 1/4-inch balls; you should get about 22 meatballs. Transfer to a plate and refrigerate while you make the Tomato Sauce.

• 5 1/2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
• 3 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 1/4 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp olive oil

In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once the sauce comes to a simmer, remove the pan from the heat.

• Olive oil as needed to cook
• 3/4 cup finely grated 24-month-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more to freshly grate for garnish
• 1/4 cup finishing olive oil
• Picked basil leaves, fried, to garnish

1. Ladle about 1 heaping cup of the tomato sauce into a large roasting pan or ceramic baking dish and spread over the bottom; keep the remaining sauce nearby while you cook the meatballs.
2. Heat a large skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium-high heat, and coat the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil. Working in batches, add just enough meatballs to fit loosely in the pan and cook, turning as needed until lightly browned all over, 4 to 6 minutes per batch. Add the cooked meatballs to the roasting pan with tomato sauce, nestling them into a single layer. Once all done, top the meatballs with 3/4 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
3. Heat the oven to 325°F. Cover the pan of meatballs tightly with foil, and bake until the internal temperature of the meatballs reaches 140°F on an instant-read thermometer, 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, rewarm the Tomato Sauce over low heat. Once the meatballs come out of the oven, uncover the pan and gently transfer each meatball to the pot of sauce, turning each to ensure they’re coated in sauce. Finish cooking the meatballs in the sauce until their internal temperature reaches 160°F, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
5. To serve, spoon the meatballs onto a large serving platter or individual dishes and top with spoonfuls of sauce. Freshly grate Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top and drizzle with the finishing olive oil. Top each meatball with a fried basil leaf to serve.