TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
Polpette al SugoMeatballs in Tomato Sauce
A home-style secondo of mixed ground meat, stale bread, egg, Parmigiano and parsley, shaped, shallow-fried and simmered in tomato sauce. Familiar ingredients depend on sound technique: soften bread in milk, avoid overworking the meat and brown before braising.
AUTHENTICITY SCORE
Authenticity Score
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Ingredients (4 servings)
- Mixed ground beef and pork600 g
- Stale breadUse the crumb, soak in milk and squeeze out.80 g
- Whole milk100 ml
- Egg1 piece
- Grated Parmigiano ReggianoFinely grated50 g
- Fresh flat-leaf parsleyFinely chopped20 g
- GarlicGrated1 clove
- Tomato passata700 ml
- OnionFinely chopped1 piece
- Extra virgin olive oil80 ml
- Salt8 g
- Black pepper2 g
Method
Soak the bread
- 1 Tear the crumb from 80 g stale bread and soak in 100 ml milk for 10 minutes.
- 2 Once soft to the center, squeeze lightly and crumble finely by hand.
Prepare cheese and aromatics
- 1 Finely grate 50 g Parmigiano.
- 2 Finely chop 20 g flat-leaf parsley.
- 3 Grate 1 garlic clove.
- 4 Finely chop 1 onion.
Mix the meatball mixture
- 1 Put 600 g mixed ground beef and pork, soaked bread, 1 egg, 50 g Parmigiano, parsley, garlic, 1 tsp salt and black pepper in a bowl.
- 2 Mix with a grasping motion of the fingertips for 1–2 minutes, stopping while the meat retains some grain.
Caution
Do not overwork into a clay-like paste.
Shape the meatballs
- 1 Divide into 12 portions and, with lightly wetted hands, roll into balls about 4 cm across.
Ready when
Shape until the surfaces are uncracked and slightly springy when pressed.
Brown the meatballs
- 1 Heat 60 ml extra virgin olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat and add the meatballs.
- 2 Cook, rolling them, for 6–8 minutes; remove when deeply golden all over.
- 3 They do not need to cook through yet.
Simmer onion and passata
- 1 Leave about 2 tbsp oil in the same pan, removing the excess, and sauté the onion over medium heat for 6 minutes.
- 2 Once translucent and sweet-smelling, add 700 ml passata and 1/2 tsp salt and boil for 5 minutes.
Simmer the meatballs in sauce
- 1 Return the meatballs to the sauce and simmer over low heat for 25 minutes.
- 2 Turn them gently only once during cooking.
- 3 They are ready when coated in sauce, pale brown at the cut center and releasing clear juices.
About this dish
Polpette symbolize family cooking in Naples and elsewhere in southern Italy. Long loved as something made for the family at Sunday lunch rather than a restaurant dish, they still create a two-part meal in southern households: tomato sauce from the pot dresses the primo of pasta, then the meatballs themselves become the secondo.
The ingredients are mixed ground meat, stale bread, eggs and cheese. Nothing expensive is needed. Soaking stale bread in milk before mixing it in comes from the no-waste wisdom of cucina povera, the cooking of the poor.
Southern Italian migrants took this dish to America from the late 19th to early 20th century. Across the Atlantic, polpette and pasta merged onto one plate and took root as spaghetti and meatballs. It is a striking example of a homeland dish establishing a different canon abroad.
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