Meatballs in Salento are always “awesome”, because they have their own dignity without the need to add any adjectives. When we say meatballs, we say everything; they are the queens of the table. In Salento there is even a ritual of Sunday.
Meatballs with sauce not only resist the reinterpretations of dishes, but are still trendy. Among other things, they are also fun to prepare with children who can enjoy creating the “balls” together with us, and then eating them with even more gusto once they are ready.
Meatballs are a dish for which every Salento grandmother has her own recipe with small variations depending on the geographical area and tastes. This one we publish Todayis that of a grandmother from Southern Salento.
Ingredients
For the dough
500g of minced meat (300g of beef pulp and 200g of pork pulp)
1 sprig of parsley
5 tablespoons of Grana Padano
1 stale sandwich
Milk to taste
2 eggs
Salt to taste
Pepper as needed
Extra virgin olive oil
For the sauce
1 Onion
2 EVO oil
Basil to taste
1 kg tomato pulp
Method
Let’s take a large bowl and put the minced meat in it. Add eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, grated cheese. Then we take the stale bread, which we have previously soaked in milk (for about half an hour), squeeze it and insert it into the mixture. We work the dough well and for a long time.
With wet hands we divide the dough into meatballs and make golf-sized balls.
Pour the EVO oil into a pan and quickly sear the meatballs (about 3 minutes), then place them on a tray.
Now let’s prepare the sauce.
In a thick-bottomed pan, place two tablespoons of EVO oil and the onion, which we will just brown and soften. We pour in the tomato pulp and after about 20 minutes, insert the meatballs one by one.
Let it cook for another 30 minutes or so (depending on the size of the meatballs) over a low heat. Then we turn it off and let the sauce “rest” for 10 minutes.
Now our meatballs are ready to be served.
For this recipe, I thank my grandmother Teresa Negro, from Salve; a beautiful town by the sea, in the province of Lecce, a few kilometers from Santa Maria di Leuca.
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