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Recipe

Polpette al sugo

Everyday Italian meatballs simmered slowly in a simple tomato sauce. No raisins or pine nuts — just meat, day-old bread, cheese, parsley and tomato, exactly as in a home in southern Italy.

Prep
25 min
Cooking
50 min
Servings
5
Total
1 h 15 min

The recipe text is written by our kitchen in Swedish.

Polpette al sugo

Ingredients

  • 400 g minced beef and 200 g minced pork (or 600 g beef)
  • 120 g pale day-old bread
  • 100 ml milk or water
  • 1 egg
  • 60 g Parmesan or mild pecorino
  • 1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 garlic clove (optional)
  • 800 g passata
  • 1 small yellow onion (about 100 g)
  • Fresh basil
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Spaghetti, rigatoni or penne (80–100 g dried pasta per adult)

Method

  1. 1.

    Soak the bread. Tear the bread into small pieces, put it in a bowl and pour over the milk or water. Leave for about 10 minutes, then gently squeeze it out — it should be soft and moist, not wet. Many Italian homes use old bread instead of breadcrumbs; it makes the meatballs softer and juicier.

  2. 2.

    Mix the mixture. Put the mince in a bowl with the soaked bread, the egg, the grated cheese, 2 tbsp chopped parsley, the optional garlic, 7 g salt (about 1 tsp) and ½ tsp black pepper. Mix with your hands just until evenly combined — overworking makes the meatballs dense. Rest for 10 minutes if you can.

  3. 3.

    Shape the meatballs. Wet your hands and roll balls of about 30–35 g each, roughly the size of a small walnut. You should get 18–20.

  4. 4.

    Start the tomato sauce. Finely chop the onion and soften it in 2–3 tbsp olive oil in a wide pan over low to medium heat for 7–8 minutes, without browning. Add 800 g passata and 150 ml water, 1 tsp salt and a few basil leaves. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Don't normally add sugar — if the tomatoes are sharp, let the sauce cook a little longer instead.

  5. 5.

    Brown the meatballs lightly. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and brown the meatballs quickly all over, in batches. They should take on colour but need not cook through. Move them straight into the tomato sauce. An even simpler version is to drop the raw meatballs into the simmering sauce — very tender, but without the fried flavour.

  6. 6.

    Simmer in the sauce. Cover and let the meatballs simmer over low heat for about 25 minutes. The sauce should barely bubble; a hard boil dries them out. Shake the pan gently rather than stirring. Uncover and cook for another 5–10 minutes if the sauce needs thickening. Adjust the salt and add a few fresh basil leaves.

  7. 7.

    Serving. In Italy, pasta with some of the tomato sauce is often served first as primo piatto, with the meatballs following as secondo with bread or vegetables. For a weeknight dinner it works beautifully to serve everything together with spaghetti, rigatoni or penne, fresh bread and grated Parmesan.

Wine pairing

Campania Aglianico "Tinto" IGP

Djupt röd färg. Fruktig doft av bär och rötter som lakrits och rabarber. Strukturerad och balanserad smak med toner av tobak och körsbärssylt. Fläsk- och kalvkött, förrätter med tomat, samt mustiga rätter med korv och svamp.

Read about Campania Aglianico "Tinto" IGP

Tips from the kitchen

  • Bread instead of breadcrumbs. Day-old bread soaked in milk keeps the meatballs soft and juicy; breadcrumbs give a firmer texture.
  • Mix briefly. Stop as soon as everything is evenly combined — overworked mince makes dense meatballs.
  • Keep the sauce at a bare simmer. A hard boil dries the meatballs out and breaks them up. Shake the pan instead of stirring.
  • No sugar in the sauce. If the tomatoes are sharp, simply cook the sauce longer and the acidity rounds off on its own.