Taylor Adams
Audio By Carbonatix
Good to Go is a column where our food writers explore Dallas’ restaurant scene through takeout orders, delivery boxes and reheated leftovers.
For months now, chefs in town have been posting about a certain to-go container full of sauce-drenched meatballs from Il Bracco in University Park.
That’s for good reason.
There’s plenty of good flavor coming out of this spot, but those meatballs are phenomenal and even a favorite dish for CEO Robert Quick.
Will you step up to support Dallas Observer this year?
At the Dallas Observer, we’re small and scrappy — and we make the most of every dollar from our supporters. Right now, we’re $16,000 away from reaching our December 31 goal of $30,000. If you’ve ever learned something new, stayed informed, or felt more connected because of the Dallas Observer, now’s the time to give back.
“We had experienced a lot of really heavily reduced tomato sauces, and that wasn’t what we were going for with this dish: The richness of the meatball needs a lighter, fresher tomato sauce, et cetera, to balance it out,” he says.
The meatballs are perfectly complemented by a light tomato sauce.
Taylor Adams
Meatballs are frequently filled with breadcrumbs, drying out the meat, Quick says. II Bracco instead adds a buttermilk panade, which injects the meat with additional moisture.
Take a bite of that meatball alone, and it’s meaty and fine, just short on salt. But taste it with that perfectly seasoned sauce, and you find a complement that makes just the right bite.
Alongside this is crispy focaccia – not terribly tall and fried in good olive oil.
It’s the perfect bit of comfort food in a plastic container. Sure, it would be a lovely plate to share among friends at a dining table inside the restaurant, but it’s perfectly consumed – even after a 17-minute car ride – solo on a couch with reruns of True Blood, or whatever you’re binge-watching these days to keep going.
Il Bracco, 8416 Preston Center Plaza, University Park. Open for limited dine-in and curbside takeout 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Saturday.
