Polpette or Italian meatballs is a staple of Italian home cooking. On Sunday, almost in every home around Italy you'll hear a sizzling sound of juicy meatballs cooking in a rich tomato sauce.
Of course, everyone has their own recipe and refined technique.
As you make them a few dozens of times you'll develop a sense of making perfect meatballs even without following the recipe. Until that time, use my measurements and method that make juicy, tender and flavorful meatballs every single time.
Table Of Contents
What are Polpette?
Polpette is an Italian word that is used to name bite size, round-shaped nuggets that can be made of different ingredients.
For example: polpette made of meat - polpette di carne, polpette made of ricotta - polpette di ricotta, polpette made of vegetables - polpette di verdura. In this last case you would add main vegetable name to the frase "polpette di [vegetable name]". For example: polpette di zucchine, polpette di melanzane (eggplant meatballs) and so on.
Quite often, Italians also make polpette to use left-over foods such as risotto, boiled meat or chicken breast and even stale bread (polpette di pane).
But unless you specify the kind kind of "polpetta", by default everyone thinks of polpette as these classic Italian Meatballs in tomato sauce.
By the way, polpette is plural of polpetta.
Then there's also a polpettone - a giant meatballs which is nothing else than a meatloaf and polpettine - teeny tiny meatballs.
Italian Polpette: What's So Special?
- Extra juicy and flavorful.
- Perfect for meat prep. Freeze raw and cook directly from frozen!
- Minimal hands-on work and with few all genuine ingredients.
- Everything cooks in one pot.
- Make at least 2 meals out of one! Even though Italians don't serve pasta and polpette together aka spaghetti and meatballs, when you make polpette you still can (read MUST!) use the sauce to make delicious pasta in rich tomato sauce that has absorbed all flavors of the meatballs.
Ingredients
- For meatballs:
- Ground meat - a mix of ground beef and pork is one of the secrets for juicy and flavorful polpette.
- Stale bread - crust removed. You can also use fresh or semi-stale bread.
- Parmesan cheese - Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano. You can also use Pecorino or what I like to do is use a mix of Parmsan and Pecorino.
- Parsley - fresh or frozen finely chopped.
- Egg, salt, pepper.
- For the sauce:
- Tomato passata - or peeled and pureed canned tomatoes.
- Shallot - or onion if you prefer.
- Garlic - whole cloves, crushed with a flat knife to give subtle flavor that's not overpowering.
- Extra virgin olive oil.
- Basil or oregano.
Variations & Substitutes
You might have come across some Italian meatball recipes or even tried one with pine nuts and raisins - that’s called Italian Meatballs Neapolitan Style.
That’s the next meatballs I’ll be making. But for this recipe, stick to classic ingredients - you’ll be worth it!
Meatballs Size
In this case, size does NOT really matter. As long as they’re of the same size in the batch, which helps meatballs to cook evenly, you're off to a good start.
You can make them tiny as olives or huge as a tennis ball. JK. Probably you don’t want to go THAT big. I love keeping it sweet and right in the middle. Size of a walnut in a shell tastes perfect to me.
But a lot of people love making them somewhere between a walnut and an apricot size. Another good and PRACTICAL visual is a medium size cookie scoop. Read more tips about the below.
Some also like to flatten then out slightly with the palm of the hand saying that they'll cook faster. It didn't really make a huge difference for me. And round meatballs look certainly more appetizing to the eye, but again, it's more of a personal preference/belief at this point.
How To Make Polpette - Step By Step With Pictures
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
- In a bowl add stale bread and cover it with water. Let soak until soft then squeeze well with your hands to remove the liquid.
- In another bowl add ground meat, soaked and squeezed bread, Parmesan cheese, egg, finely chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
- In a large casserole or a deep pan large enough to fit both meatballs and the sauce add a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Add finely chopped shallot and garlic cloves crushed with a flat knife.
- Let simmer on low heat until garlic becomes fragrant. Remove the garlic and add tomato passata, basil and a few pinches of salt. Rinse the can with a little of water add it to the pot as well. Let simmer on low heat while you're rolling the meatballs.
- While tomato sauce is simmering form the meatballs. You can use an ice-cream scoop or spread the meatballs mix flat on a parchment paper on a baking dish as I show in the picture, divide into equal squares.
- This way it's super easy to roll each square into a ball. Your polpette are of the same size, look amazing cook evenly.
- Arrange polpette in a simmering tomato sauce.
- Cover with a lid and let cook for about 20-30 minutes on low simmer. Occasionally give a gentle toss to make sure meatballs don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
Other Ways To Cook & Serve Polpette
Polpette in tomato sauce is not the only way how you can cook and serve them. Another delicious, but little-known way to cook polpette is using a classic soffritto.
Make sure to chop vegetables finely and slightly cook them in olive oil. Then add raw meatballs and roast them for a few minutes until they've changed color. After that add some water and cover with a lid. Bring to simmer and cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes.
What to serve with meatballs?
In English-speaking world Spaghetti and meatballs is the most classic version.
But it's not how Italians serve it.
You might be surprised that Italians NEVER serve meatballs with pasta (probably excluding few little known regional recipes from the South).
Instead, they cook and serve pasta (spaghetti including, but most commonly penne pasta) with rich meatballs sauce. And THEN, they serve meatballs as "secondo" or main course.
Meatballs are covered in tomato sauce, topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and some chopped parsley.
More Sunday Dinner Recipe
Looking for other recipes like this? Try also:
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Full Recipe
Polpette - Italian Meatballs (Juicy and Tender!)
Ingredients
For Meatballs:
- 500 grams ground meat , mix of beef and pork (about 1.1 pound)
- 100 grams stale bread
- 1 egg
- 75 grams Parmesan cheese , grated (about ⅔ cup)
- 2 tablespoon parsley , finely chopped
- Salt
- Pepper
Tomato Sauce:
- 3 cups tomato puree + approx. ¼ cup water
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 shallot
- Basil leaves , fresh or frozen
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Prepare polpette mix
- In a bowl add stale bread and cover it with water. Let soak until soft then squeeze well with your hands to remove the liquid.
- In another bowl add ground meat, soaked and squeezed bread, Parmesan cheeese, egg, finely chopped parsley, salt and pepper.
- Mix well and set aside.
Prepare tomato sauce
- In a large casserole or a deep pan large enough to hold both polpette and the sauce add a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
- Add finely chopped shallot and garlic cloves crushed with a flat knife. Let simmer on low heat until garlic becomes fragrant. Remove the garlic and add tomato passata, basil and a few pinches of salt. Rinse the can with a little of water add it to the pot as well.
- Let simmer on low heat while you're rolling the meatballs.
Roll and cook polpette
- While tomato sauce is simmering, shape polpette. You can use an ice-cream scoop or easier yet, spread the meatballs mix flat on a parchment paper or in a baking dish like I show in the picture, divide into equal squares with a bench scraper. Now roll each square into a ball.
- Arrange polpette in a simmering tomato sauce. Cover with a lid and let cook for about 20-30 minutes on low simmer. Occasionally, give a gentle toss to make sure polpette don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Serve hot or warm with tomato sauce.Use any leftover tomato sauce to season pasta.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Jean says
I saw this recipe made on tv and it was eaten in a large dish. What do I serve with it. Can it be served with bread for dipping?
Svitlana says
Yes, you can and should serve it bread to make scarpetta (mop up sauce from the plate). Any vegetable side dish goes well with polpette. You can browse all my side dishes in the recipe index.
David Lincoln says
Love it. I added some smoked paprika to the sauce for a little more liveliness. Bellissimo
Avril Paterson says
Am definitely going to make this, sounds amazing. Only thing is, is it tinned tomatoes or tomato puree???
Italian Recipe Book says
Hello Avril, you will need tomato puree to make these polpette. Let me know how you like or if you have any other questions.
Haz3nMommie says
Just like our family recipe my grandmother brought from Naples written on parchment. Absolutely wonderful; thank you for sharing. I love your idea of using a microplane for the shallots. Genius!
Italian Recipe Book says
Thank you!! I'm so happy you enjoyed the recipe, especially that it brings such good memories!