Meatballs or meatballs are a popular dish in Italian cuisine. Despite the prevailing stereotype, spaghetti with meatballs is not the most common food. Most often, in Italy, meatballs are served for the second with a salad or vegetable side dish. Each region has its own nuances in the recipes, generous peasant cuisine does not require strict adherence to the rules, except for one thing - all products must be fresh.
It is necessary
-
- Polpettine Con Passi e Pinoli (Neapolitan meatballs with raisins and nuts)
- 600 g ground beef;
- 225 g of stale white bread;
- a bunch of parsley;
- 1 chicken egg;
- 110 g parmigiano cheese
- freshly grated;
- salt and pepper;
- butter;
- a clove of garlic;
- 55 g raisins;
- 55 g of pine nuts;
- 500 g chopped tomatoes;
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 medium onion head.
- Crocchette Di Vitello All'Italiana (Italian veal meatballs)
- 500 g of roasted veal scraps;
- 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh (not salted or smoked) bacon
- 1 1/2 tablespoon dry bread crumbs
- 1 1/2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 chicken eggs;
- juice of half a lemon;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- breadcrumbs;
- 250 ml tomato sauce.
Instructions
Step 1
Polpettine Con Passi e Pinoli (Neapolitan meatballs with raisins and nuts)
Soak stale bread in a little water (you can use a little milk or cream for the same purpose). Do not forget to pre-cut the tough crust from the loaf. Finely chop the parsley, pass the peeled garlic through a garlic press. Peel the onion and cut into small cubes. Mix the minced meat with parsley, squeeze the bread and add to the meat. Pass the minced meat through a meat grinder or pulse in a food processor. Add garlic, pine nuts, raisins, egg, season with salt and pepper and mix by hand. Form large balls of meat, about 5 centimeters in diameter, and fry until golden brown in a mixture of olive oil and butter.
Step 2
Fry the onion until transparent. Pour some olive oil into a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, season with salt and pepper and cook a quick thick sauce. Transfer the meatballs to the sauce and heat them over low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Step 3
If you don't have pine nuts, then replacing Parmigiano cheese with pecorino and ground beef with pork, following the same recipe, you can make another Italian dish - Purpette Ra Passula - Calabrian-style meatballs with raisins.
Step 4
Crocchette Di Vitello All'Italiana (Italian veal meatballs)
Fry the bread crumbs in olive oil until golden brown. Pass the leftover meat through a meat grinder or grind in a food processor along with lard. You can use raw bacon instead of lard. Divide the two eggs into yolk and white. Beat the whites separately. Add lemon juice, yolk, toasted crumbs and grated cheese to the minced meat, mix. Season with salt and pepper. Add whipped egg white and mix gently.
Step 5
Beat the remaining egg in a bowl. Form the minced meat into balls 5 centimeters in diameter. Dip each meatball in an egg and then roll in breadcrumbs. Fry in olive oil until golden brown, add tomato sauce and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Serve with fresh salad and red wine.
Step 6
This is an old recipe, born at a time when it was customary to use all the leftovers and scraps of food in various "economical" dishes, so it allows the use of not only fried veal as the main ingredient, but also boiled veal, as well as pork, poultry, beef or the same mixture of these types of meat in any proportion. The classic recipe does not specify any aromatic herbs, but many variations allow for fresh or dried rosemary or sage leaves.
