Linda Ronstadt Turns to Recipes
Linda Ronstadt, once the highest paid woman in rock, is famous for a lot of things. Her high-fidelity voice earned her 11 Grammy Awards for songs like “You’re No Good” and “Blue Bayou.” She had a killer run on Broadway and put mariachi music on the charts. Both President Obama and Kermit the Frog had crushes on her.
One thing she is especially famous for among her family and friends is not cooking, even though one of her grandfathers invented the electric stove and the other was a master of meat and mesquite.
That particular hole in her skill set makes it even more curious that Ms. Ronstadt, 76, has written a cookbook. But “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands,” published by California’s Heyday press on Oct. 4, is a way to explain why the arid land that starts in Arizona and stretches into Mexico’s west coast is her foothold in the world.
It’s a story she has told through music, and now wants to tell — as much as she can — through food. Except there is that troubling bit about cooking. She just never really learned how.
RONSTADT FAMILY MEATBALLS
Albóndigas de la Familia Ronstadt
My great-grandmother Margarita taught my father to cook, but his mom was a great cook too. She made this dish most days for my grandfather when he came home from the hardware store for a hot lunch. I loved having it for dinner at my grandparents’ house. My grandmother set an elegant table, and these delicate albóndigas, made fragrant with mint and cilantro, were often the soup course.
Makes about 65 meatballs, or 8 servings
3 pounds ground beef, preferably flank and round steak
6 medium tomatoes, preferably plum
½ cup fresh mint, finely chopped
½ cup cilantro, minced
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 medium scallion, minced
2 tablespoons oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
¾ cup olive oil or melted lard
6 cups boiling water
Lime wedges, for serving
- Put ground beef into a large bowl.
- Broil tomatoes just until the skin can be removed easily. Peel the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Puree in a blender. There should be about 1½ cups.
- Add mint, cilantro, garlic, scallion, oregano, salt and pepper to the meat.
- Mix well. Add tomatoes and knead mixture.
- Add oil or melted lard, incorporating it into the meat mixture by kneading. Test the mixture by forming a piece into a ball the size of a walnut. It should hold together.
- Proceed to form walnut-sized balls, and then drop a few at a time into boiling water. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes.
- Serve meatballs in the liquid in which they were cooked, with lime wedges on the side.
https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-2022/linda-ronstadt-feels-like-home.html
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