Some dishes don’t need reinventing, they need doing properly. Polpette al sugo, meatballs simmered gently in tomato sauce, is one of the great constants of Italian home cooking, the kind of thing every region, every family, has its own quiet version of. This one keeps things lean and simple: good veal, a little bread and parmesan to bind it, herbs, and a sauce made from nothing more than sweet, ripe ciliegino tomatoes. No garlic, no onion, no long list of aromatics to fuss over. Just a handful of honest ingredients, treated properly.
The whole dish rests on the tomatoes, which is exactly why it’s worth using a proper passata di pomodoro ciliegino rather than a standard tin. Cherry tomatoes carry more natural sweetness and a rounder, less acidic flavour than larger varieties, so the sauce needs nothing added to balance it, no sugar, no long reduction, just twenty minutes on a low flame while the meatballs soak up all that flavour. It’s a weeknight dish at heart, ready in well under an hour, but it eats like something far more considered.
Ingredients (serves 2)
- 200g Agromonte Passata di Pomodoro Ciliegino
- 200g minced veal
- 1 egg
- 15g stale bread
- 15g grated Parmesan
- A small handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
- Oregano
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
Blitz the stale bread to fine crumbs, either in a food processor or by hand with a grater.
In a bowl, combine the minced veal with the breadcrumbs, egg, grated Parmesan, oregano and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and mix well with your hands until you have a smooth, even mixture.
Take a walnut-sized piece of the mixture and roll it into a ball between your palms. Repeat until all the mixture is used up.
Warm 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a casserole pan or saucepan over a medium heat. Add the meatballs and brown them all over, turning gently, for about 4 minutes.
Pour in the Agromonte Passata di Pomodoro Ciliegino, season with salt and pepper, and reduce the heat to low. Cover partially and let everything simmer gently for around 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly and the meatballs are cooked through.
Serve the polpette al sugo di ciliegino while still hot, with plenty of the sauce spooned over, and good bread on the side to mop up whatever’s left in the pan.
Shop the recipe
- Agromonte Passata di Pomodoro Ciliegino
- Grana Padano, for grating over
- A good crusty loaf, for the table
