Meatballs of fire: An easy, fun recipe for the ultimate Italian comfort food

To me there is no greater comfort food in the world than my mamma's polpette (meatballs), especially now, when I am living so far away from home. In Calabria, as with most dishes, we like them spicy, and what better way to spice up life than with nduja, our Calabrian spicy, spreadable sausage.

When I opened Grano, this recipe was the first dish that I added to the menu and it has become one of our most popular. Every time we make it in the restaurant, I am taken home to my mamma’s kitchen. We usually had polpette on Sundays as an antipasto. As the tomato sauce was bubbling my mamma would always deep-fry a few sneaky ones for me to try.

This recipe has travelled with me throughout my life and I am so happy to share it. It is very easy and fun to make. An important tip: I would suggest that you make a very rich tomato sauce because the scarpetta (when you clean the plate with bread) after polpette is out of this world.

Roberto Mungo is the owner of Grano, an Italian restaurant in Dubin 7.

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POLPETTE ALLA NDUJA (SPICY MEATBALLS)

Serves four

Ingredients
For the polpette:
200g minced pork
200g minced beef
30g nduja (spicy Calabrian spreadable sausage available in many speciality food stores; if you can't get it use another chilli paste or some chilli flakes, to taste)
200g breadcrumbs
20g of Parmesan
20g pecorino
1 small egg
Two or three large cloves of garlic, or to taste, crushed
Handful of parsley
Salt and pepper

For the sauce:
1 600g jar of tomato passata
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, cut in half
Fresh basil

To serve:
Fresh basil
Smoked ricotta or pecorino cheese (or Parmesan)

Method

1. Heat the nduja gently in a small pot until it is melted.

2. In a large bowl mix together the pork, beef, melted nduja, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, pecorino, egg, crushed garlic and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Mix together really well with your hands to form a dense paste.

3. Use both of your hands to make little round polpette, the same size as a ping-pong ball (about 30g each).

4. Gently heat the olive oil with the piece of garlic chopped in half in a pot. Add the tomato passata, a pinch of salt and a few leaves of fresh basil. Cook gently for 20 minutes.

5. Using a large oven tray distribute the polpette evenly in one layer across the tray and cover with the tomato sauce.

6. Cook in an oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes or until the meat is cooked through. Make sure to shake the oven tray a few times while cooking.

7. Serve the polpette in a bowl topped with some fresh basil and grated smoked ricotta or pecorino cheese (or Parmesan).

Kitchen Cabinet is a series of recipes from chefs and restaurateurs who are members of Euro-Toques Ireland who have come together during the coronavirus outbreak to share some of the easy, tasty things that they like to cook and eat at home #ChefsAtHome