Mamma’s Polpette

(serves 4 | 30 minutes | easy)

The great thing about these polpette is that you can cook them in so many different ways: sautéed with a drop of olive oil, in tomato sauce, or in tomato sauce to them mix them with pasta—the more options the better! ​

Makes a lot of polpette. If you want to freeze them, I suggest rolling them out first!

1 bunch of parsley, destemmed and washed – 300g minced veal – 3 tbsp of grated parmigiano – 100g of mortadella – 1 onion, sautéed in olive oil until golden – salt and pepper – 1 egg – 2 slices of pre-sliced bread, soaked in milk and squeezed – breadcrumbs or instant potato flakes (optional)

  1. Place the parsley, meat, parmigiano, mortadella, onion, soaked bread and egg in a blender and blend until smooth. If the mix is too wet, add enough bread crumbs or potato flakes until the mix dries up. (It’s too wet if it sticks to your hands when rolling and if it doesn’t compact nicely). Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
  2. With slightly wet hands, take a teaspoon of mix and roll it into a meatball and set to one side. Repeat with the rest of the mix, making sure each meatball is roughly of the same size, it will help the cooking process. 
  3. Heat a few lugs of olive oil in a non-stick pan and place the meatballs in it snugly, making sure they don’t touch (you might have to cook them in batches). Toss the pan every minute to allow them to cook evenly and crisp all around. Taste one to check that they are cooked through and serve. 

If you want to make them with tomato sauce, place the passata to simmer as you prepare the meatballs, then once you’ve fried them drop them straight into the pot with the tomato sauce, roll around and cover with a lid, cooking them at least for an additional 5 minutes.