The best part of making salumi is all the recipes that go along with it. One of my favorite dishes is “Polpette di salsiccia e ricotta.” It’s a fairly simple dish but loaded with Mmmmmmmm. Since we just made it the other day, I figured I would post this recipe for “Festa Italiana” hosted by Maryann at Finding la Dolce Vita and Marie at Proud Italian Cook.
What you’ll need:
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup grated parmigiano
- pinch of salt
- pinch of garlic powder
- 2 cups of crumbled bread (I will explain)
- 1 1/2 cups of breadcrumbs
- 2 lb of ricotta
- 1 lb of sausage meat
The difficulty with many Italian recipes passed along from generation to generation is that exact quantities are never know… it’s a pinch of this, a little of that, a taste, eye-it, a splash and little. It sort of makes it tough to forward recipes along and at the same time adds to the romantic quality of Italian cooking. I’ve done my best to guesstimate and have confidence that many of you will know when “it’s right.”
Start by making a simple broth in a large pot. Water, a splash of oil, a pinch of salt and a 1/4 onion diced. Bring your broth to a boil.
Crumbled bread: We make our own bread, so often we’ll have hardened pieces left over that we’ll use to make breadcrumbs. For this recipe we take several pieces of hardened bread and place them in a bowl of water to soften. Once the bread soaks up the water, you’ll be able to crumble it with your hands (hence… crumbled bread.) This helps with the consistence of the polpette and makes them heartier. You can also just use dry breadcrumbs if you wish (guesstimating 3 cups.)
Cook your sausage meat in a large frying pan until it is fully cooked.
In a large bowl mix your bread, ricotta, sausage, eggs, salt, parmigiano and garlic powder. If your mixture is too “soft” you can add breadcrumbs to thicken it up.
Roll your polpette and drop them into your pot of broth one at a time. Make as many as you want but remember to leave some room as they will expand. Cook for 15 minutes. Enjoy and buon appetito!
PS- Do you like the broccoli rabe leaf garnish??? it’s all I had! I’m so not a recipe guy.
You may not be a “recipe guy”, but you did a great job on this dish! Thanks for joining us, Joe
I love the language of Italian cooks, eye it, a little of this, a pinch of that,taste it!! And just look how that polpette turned out!! This will be great for our Festa, thanks for bringing this delicious dish Joe!
Do you know, I find that recipe fascinating. Never would I have thought of adding ricotta to sausage meat and then I wouldn’t have thought of boiling the polpette.
Thanks, I’ve noted this one and shall give it a try.
You sure are a “recipe guy” it looks so professional with all the little step by step photos (wish I’d thought of that), next stop your own TV programe. I’m so jealous:)
I love the idea of ricotta in the polpette and also the idea of poaching them in the broth. I’ve had similar tiny ones in thin ‘brothy’ soup here in Umbria and they were very good. Bravo, Joe.
Not a recipe guy? And you call yourself Italian???
hehe
Looks and sounds great!!! And hey..the garnish is overrated anyway. You never remember the garnish! Gotta get my stuff together…I’ll be participating!!
Joe,
Something spooky just happened… I was telling Daniele about your polpette last night, because I found that idea so fascinating. He told me that it reminded him of a dish they make in the very north of Italy: Knederly or Canederli.
Anyway, I thought I’d give it a go. As we are off to do the spesa this afternoon, I had it in mind to get some sausage meat and ricotta (already got the day old bread).
Before we go, I’ve got an English lesson to give and needed to print something off. I send my stuff to his printer. Out it came – but also out came your recipe! I asked him if he’d printed it, but he said he hadn’t.
Obviously, I must have ‘bad clicked’ as Dan would say. In any case, that’s a sure sign that I’ve got to try them now! (It’s also a sign that I need a new pair of glasses.)
Thanks for all the nice comments… let me correct something: I cook all the time, but have never had to explain a recipe or write it down in a way I feel is easy for someone else to understand. Not as easy as I thought… I see all your recipes and great photos (I need a new camera by the way!) and it Pops out at me. Love it. The next one will be easier:) Looking forward to the other recipes.
Sally – Spppooookkkky! It’s a sign! “day old bread”… see, I should have used that to explain it! Most people would be like, “who has day old bread laying around” Italians do!:)
I had far too much of these at the Festa…did I leave any for the other guests:D
bellini valli – wouldn’t it be nice to get a little taste of all those delicious recipes? Thanks for stopping by. Joe
Your polpette sound like the “Fu-Balls” I make using tofu instead of meat, Joe — similar ingredients with that fine Italian hand. Che bella! Pull up a seat to the festa and dig in!