Polpette al sugo
Polpette al sugo
A Neapolitan home-style dish of meatballs made from mixed ground beef and pork, hiding pine nuts and raisins inside, dusted with flour, fried, and then simmered in tomato sauce. Tucking pine nuts and raisins into the center is the distinctive Neapolitan touch, and the sauce the meat is simmered in is also used to dress pasta.
Naples, Campania
Naples — Told both as a humble dish for using up leftover meat and as a "noble plate" made with good ingredients; both accounts circulate.
Main ingredients
- Mixed ground beef and pork
- Breadcrumbs soaked in milk
- Egg
- Parmigiano
- Pine nuts
- Raisins
- Garlic and parsley
- Tomato (whole peeled or passata)
How it goes
These are the bones of the method. Quantities and detail live in the sources.
-
Make the mixture
Combine the mixed ground meat with the milk-soaked breadcrumbs, egg, Parmigiano and parsley, and knead well.
-
Wrap the filling
Shape into balls by hand, tucking pine nuts and raisins inside and sealing them in, then dust with flour.
-
Fry
Heat oil in a pan and fry the meatballs until golden brown, then drain the oil.
-
Simmer in tomato
Transfer to a tomato sauce made with garlic and onion, and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes or more so the flavor soaks in.
-
Finish
Add basil to bring out its aroma and plate.
Pasta it follows
Why it works
Ragù napoletanoThe sauce the polpette are simmered in is used as-is to dress pasta. Placing this same Neapolitan tomato-and-meat sauce as the primo, with the meat itself served later as the secondo, follows the local pattern. 
La Genovese napoletanaAnother Neapolitan Sunday family dish. It shares with the polpette a structure where the sauce drawn out from meat goes onto the pasta first, and the meat itself comes out later on its own plate. 
Spaghetti alla puttanescaA tomato sauce from the same Campania region. It finishes light thanks to the saltiness of olives and capers, so as the primo it doesn't reverse the weight against the fried, simmered meat that follows as the secondo. 
Penne all'arrabbiataPlacing a light, chile-spiked tomato sauce as the primo first lets the weight rise step by step into the rich fried meatball secondo.