PORK & BEEF POLPETTE Who doesn’t like meatballs? A good meatball is a sublime thing. It has texture and flavour and it’s comforting and fun. We often think of it as an American invention. For as long as I can remember, New York has been in the grip of a meatball craze, a sort of revival of the working-class, Depression-era staple that is cheap, easy to make, nutritious and tasty. You can, after all, pretty much mince anything as long as you flavour it with enough salt, pepper and herbs. But meatballs are, of course, as Italian as spaghetti. In Italy they call them polpette. Talking of spaghetti, you could serve these meatballs with any pasta but they go particularly well with linguine. Just make sure you are generous with the tomato sauce and grate plenty of Parmesan over your individual servings. We make and serve 25,000 polpette* a year at POLPO. The classic pork and beef is our most popular variety. For thirty balls (three to five per person): 1kg minced pork 500g minced beef 3 medium free-range eggs Scant ½ tablespoon fine salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 150g breadcrumbs Small pinch of dried chilli flakes 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped ½ handful of flat parsley leaves, chopped 1½ litres tomato sauce – see page 149 Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas 7. Combine all the ingredients (except the tomato sauce), massage thoroughly and roll into 45g spheres, like large golf balls. Place the balls on a greased baking tray and roast in the oven for 10 minutes, turning once, until they are starting to brown. Then poach in the tomato sauce in a covered saucepan for 10 minutes. Serve 3–5 balls per person with some lightly toasted focaccia to mop up the juices. *A word on Italian vocabulary. Our second restaurant was called Polpetto. Many people have informed me that it means meatball. Not so. A polpetta is a meatball, the plural being polpette because it is feminine. Polpetto is a rather cutesy word, not often used, that is a diminutive for baby octopus. The plural here would be polpetti because it is masculine. You will rarely see this in restaurants as Italians generally call small octopuses moscardini. I hope that’s all clear now…
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