This recipe for Polpette has been passed down through my family and enjoyed at many family gatherings over the years. Its traditional Italian flavours are always a hit with everyone ( kids included) and there is always a fight over who gets the last polpette.
This recipe is super versatile as you can serve polpette a number of ways. Traditionally Italians serve poplette simply with crusty bread and perhaps a little side salad, Americans love polpette with pasta (spaghetti and meatballs). You can even serve these as an appetizer or canape with little tooth picks at a party (I have served them all three ways), which ever way you you choose to serve them, they will be delicious.
If serving this recipe as a main (with bread and salad) you can feed about 8 people generously, more if you are serving with spaghetti and even more if you are serving this at a family gathering with other dishes. This recipe makes about 36 golf ball size polpette, for my little family (2 adults and 1 child who eats like an adult haha) we get three meals out of this. I freeze the meatballs and sauce in portions for a super easy mid week dinner when I don’t have time to cook something from scratch. Just defrost and then reheat in a pan until hot again.
This is not a quick cook it will take about an hour and a half but a lot of that time is simmering when you don’t have to be doing much except stirring occasionally. And remember you may get two or even three meals out of this so its well worth the time. If you do want to save a bit of time you can start the sauce first in a separate pan and then make the polpette while the sauce simmers, although I do believe making the sugo in the same pan as you have fried the polpette is what gives the sugo a lovely rich, depth of flavour.
While it does take a little while to make polpette it can be a fun activity to do with the kids, get them involved with rolling out the polpette and dusting them with flour, you will be creating the next generation of great little cooks and starting the process of handing down your own family recipes.
Polpette (Italian Meatballs)
Equipment
- 1 Dutch oven or heavy based pot with lid
- 1 Large mixing bowl
Ingredients
Polpette (Meatballs)
- 500 g Pork mince
- 500 g Veal mince
- ¼ cup Panko bread crumbs
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese (finely grated)
- ⅓ tsp Nutmeg
- ½ cup Parsley (finely chopped)
- 1 tsp Fine salt
- 1 tsp Cracked black pepper
- 2 Eggs (lightly whisked)
- ½ cup Flour (for dusting)
- 2 tbsp Olive oil (for frying)
Sugo (Tomato Sauce)
- 1 tbs Olive oil
- 1 Onion (brown or white)
- 2 Garlic cloves (finely chopped)
- 700 g Tomato passata
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 8 leaves of fresh basil
Instructions
For the Polpette (Meatballs )
- Place pork and veal mince, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, parsley, salt, pepper and eggs into a large mixing bowl.
- Using your hands, thoroughly mix all ingredients together until well incorporated.
- Now your mixture is ready for rolling out the polpette.
- Get two plates ready (1 for the flour and 1 for the polpette once it has been dusted).
- With clean hands place a golf ball size amount of mixture on your palm and then gently roll mixture between both hands until you have a nice smooth ball.
- Place ball on the first plate with the flour and roll around until lightly covered (shake off any excess flour) then place on the clean second plate.
- Repeat until all mixture is used and you have a plate full of floured polpette ready for frying (this mixture makes about 36 meatballs).
- Heat oil in your Dutch oven, pot or pan over medium/ high heat
- Fry polpette until golden brown all over and remove to a clean plate lined with kitchen towel or a wire rack to drain off excess oil. You will need to fry the polpette in two or three batches depending on the size of your pan/ pot (don't try to do them all at once as overcrowding your polpette will result in them stewing rather than frying which will effect the texture).
- Once all your poplette are fried you can start on your sugo/ tomato sauce.
Sugo
- In the same pot/ pan add a olive oil
- Turn the stove down to medium/ low and fry off your onions stirring occasionally so they don't catch on the bottom of the pan. Its important that onions are cooked through to a light brown colour (but not burnt) this will probably take about 10 minutes. Don't rush this step as under cooked onions = less depth of flavour in your sugo.
- When onions are light brown in colour you can add your garlic and fry for two more minutes stirring frequently.
- Pour in your tomato passata then add sugar, salt, pepper and basil.
- Stir the sugo, bring to a simmer then pop on your lid and leave to simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes remove the lid of your pot give the sugo a stir and place all of the polpette in the pot with your sugo.
- Stir polpette so they are all covered and with sauce and half submerged then replace the lid and simmer on low heat for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- After 40 minutes, turn off the heat, stir the polpette around then leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.