Italian Polpettone- Cooking like a Nonna

I didn’t grow up eating Italian food. My mom was raised in China so almost everything was seasoned with soy sauce and ginger. I taught myself American food using my Betty Crocker Cooking for Boys and Girls cookbook . One of my big successes was a meatloaf pie, using the recipe which was on the back of the instant mashed potato flake box. The mashed potato flakes where used  in the mixture and then making a “crust” with mashed potatoes and some of the flakes on top raw as a “crunch”. It was a huge hit in our family.

My mom’s meatloaf was baked in a loaf pan with a sort of BBQ sauce on top, so sweet and sticky, we loved it.

Moving to Italy, I have found so many kinds of meatloaf, called Polpettone, but more often the polpette, meatballs and never on pasta! Often a Nonna’s meatloaf or meatballs, would be made with leftover boiled meats and mixed with mashed potatoes, not unlike my first experiments! Meat has always been saved for special meals like Sunday lunch or a holiday.

 

There are a lot of misconceptions of Italian American cooking and Italian regional recipes. Most of the Italian American recipes came from those that immigrated from Naples and Sicily, rich in “gravy” the red sauce.  Italy actually didn’t start using tomatoes in sauces until long after Christopher Columbus sailed for Spain and discovered the “New World”. Some of the new world food’s were tomatoes, potatoes, chili, chocolate, corn, bell peppers, pumpkin and turkey.

The first recipe I can trace back on using tomatoes in sauce is from the 1600’s, relatively recent in Italian cuisine. The Spanish introduced the foods as gifts to the Pope in Italy and from there the products spread through the country. It was a long time before these ingredients were incorportated into every day dining.

 

 

This recipe is for cooking Pomi D’oro, . They think perhaps the first tomatoes were yellow. 

“These fruits are almost like apples, they grow in the garden and you cook this way:

Take the “apples” and cut them into pieces, put them in a pot with oil, pepper, salt, garlic and wild mint.

Fry and add some tender eggplant or long Sicilian zucchini, Cuccuzze, they will be good.”

This meatloaf is an old school recipe, said to have been served in the Medici courts. The Pasticcio di Vitello, was served at Cosimo dei Medici’s baptism in 1519, before the introduction of tomatoes into cooking.

Most of what I have learned was from Mamma’s, Nonna’s, Andrea’s Zia, Aunt Vivetta, who ran a restaurant on the Tuscan Coast. When I look for recipes, I have several old school books I compare the different versions. Paolo Petroni, who’s brother owned favorite restaurant in North Beach in San Francisco, wrote the classic, Il Libro della Vera Cucina Fiorentina, simple clear recipes. Another classic is L’Arte di Mangiare Bene by Pellegrino Artusi, written in the 1800’s. He has both the raw meat meatloaf and the one with leftover boiled beef. I find usually his recipes are for an upper class. Then I have my historical cookbooks, which include more history and text with recipes like Pranzi e Conviti by Maria Luisa Incontri Lotteringhi delle Stufa or Il Pan Unto Toscano, written by Francesco Gaudenzio, a monk, in 1705.

 

 

Minced veal ( young tender beef instead of old stew meat quality) was enriched with minced prosciutto, parmigiano, bread soaked in milk and eggs. The sauce was a simple soffritto of carrot, onion and celery, then splashed with wine and dried porcini mushrooms added to the sauce. Simple seasonings, salt, pepper and nutmeg, noce moscato, very common in Italian cooking.

Italians also rarely use their ovens, but cook on the stovetop. This is typical. In the older kitchens, there were no ovens. You would simply cover a pot and slow cook. Today, ovens are electric and electricity is more expensive than gas, which the stovetop has, so it is still traditional to make certain recipes on top of the stove.  The vegetable soffritto is sauteed until golden, then the meatloaf is browned on one side and left to get crispy. Then carefully flip to let brown on the otherside and splash with wine, broth or water. Cover and let cook until done. If the liquid evaportates, add a glass of water with a tablespoon of water, dissolved inside. Stir to mix well with the vegetables, this creates the gravy.

The prosciutto mixed with the ground meat makes this recipe really rich. There are other simple recipes, adding ground sausage to the meat, for more fat and flavor. The Italian ground meat tends to be very lean, hence the added fatty meats.

I kept this version kind of simple, and partially pureed the sauce to make a gravy to serve with the meatloaf. The carrots turn it lightly orange. I used white wine. When I am making a party version, I add soaked, dried porcini mushrooms in the cooking liquids to cook with the meatloaf. The porcini take it to another level. Would be nice with mashed potatoes of course. In summer, I do the green beans cooking with tomato and onions and we served everything at room temperature.

I don’t have an Italian Nonna.but let me help you cook like one!