Which food item comes to your mind when you think about Italy? It would be spaghetti or meatballs. However, Meatballs in Italy known as polpette are considerably small in size and served as a home dish, which can be eaten with soup or on its own.
Many people don’t know about this traditional Italian polpette. This article is based on polpette and how you can easily make a traditional Italian meatball recipe (polpette ricotta). However, firstly we are going to give you the proper definition of polpette.
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What Is Polpette?
It is an Italian name for meatballs, made from a mixture of different grounded meats like beef, veal, and pork. These polpettes can be cooked, fried, steamed, and baked to eat with any sauce. That’s when you get Polpette Al Sugo, which means meatballs with sauce. Another thing that is noticed about polpette is, it can be also eaten as a snack or side dish in Italy.
Sometimes, people like to eat these juicy polpette with french fries or a salad, to get the experience of a complete meal. I know you are getting excited about learning the recipe for the old school Italian meatball recipe, let’s get to it.
Traditional Italian Meatballs Recipe (Tradizionale Polpetta Ricetta)
This recipe does include various grounded meats like veal, pork, and beef to give you the perfect flavor and texture you would imagine as having this polpette recipe in an Italian restaurant at Sicily.
Ingredients:
- Ground Veal
- Ground Pork
- Ground Beef
- Garlic (Minced)
- Premade Spaghetti Sauce
- Parsely (Chopped)
- Olive Oil
- Milk
- Parmesan Cheese
- Bread Crumbs
- Eggs
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic Powder
Instructions:
- Take a large bowl, and combine 1 pound veal, 1/2 pound pork, 1/2 pound beef. All nicely grounded.
- Add chopped parsley, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of milk, 3 ounces bread crumbs, 3/4 cup of cheese, 4 eggs, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder into the large bowl.
- Now, it’s time to get your hands dirty by rolling the meatballs after coating your hands with oil. Now the size of meatballs depends on your liking.
- After making meatballs out of meats, take a broiler pan and broil the surface of meatballs until browned.
- You can remove them from the pan after broiling. Add this polpette in premade spaghetti sauce to season them for 1-2 hours.
- The recipe for traditional meatballs is ready to taste the flavor of the streets of Italy at your home.
Note: As Mentioned, You can use the olive oil on your hands while shaping the meatballs for getting a smoother finish on the outside.
If you are vegetarian and feeling left out after reading the whole traditional polpetta ricetta. We suppose that you probably haven’t heard about vegetable polpettes recipe. Don’t worry, this recipe would taste as good as above one and is vegetarian.
Vegetable Polpettes (Vegetarian)
This polpette recipe uses eggplant instead of various meats, so the vegetarian people also can enjoy the flavor of it.
Ingredients:
- Olive Oil
- Unpeeled Eggplant (Cut in 1-inch)
- Black Pepper
- Kosher Salt
- Garlic (Crushed)
- Basil (Chopped)
- Seasoned Breadcrumbs
- Romano Cheese (Grated)
- Tomato Basil Sauce
- Parsely (Chopped)
Instructions:
- First, you have to heat the oven to 400 F, then take a baking sheet after sprinkling cooking spray.
- Take a large skillet, and drizzle 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat. When the oil gets hot, add the 1 lb of unpeeled eggplant and 1/3 cup of water in it.
- After that sprinkle some salt and pepper on top of eggplants and let it cook for 10-15 minutes, then transfer it in a bowl.
- Add 1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs, 2 ounces of cheese, 1 tablespoon of parsley, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 2 tablespoons of basil into the bowl. Sprinkle some salt and pepper in the bowl.
- Make little balls from the mixture and put it on the baking sheet. Bake these vegetable balls in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until browned.
- While the balls are baking, take a deep skillet and put the sauce to warm. After the balls are baked, put those in the sauce for simmer for 5-10 minutes on medium heat.
Also check out our latest george foreman grill chicken recipe.
We hope that this article solves your question about what is polpette al sugo? and how to make polpette recipes? Do tell us if you have any questions about these recipes in the comment section below.