Valentine’s Day Recipe: Emilia Strazzanti’s Pasta Spaghetti con le Polpette

Escape to Sicily with this delicious Pasta Spaghetti con le Polpette recipe courtesy of chef and Strazzanti co-founder, Emilia Strazzanti.

How to Have the Most Romantic Valentine’s Day at Home

Emilia Strazzanti’s Pasta Spaghetti con le Polpette

Enough for 2 portions

Roughly makes 10 Polpette 

Ingredients

• 125g x minced beef
• 125g x minced pork
• 100g x day old bread (the inside part)
• 7g x fresh parsley washed and picked
• 1/2 x clove of garlic
• 25g x grated pecorino cheese
• 50g plain flour
• 2 x jars Strazzanti Sugo di Pomodoro
• 25g x pecorino extra for the pasta
• 250g durum wheat spaghetti
• Moresca extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 Degrees Celsius.
2. Remove the crust of the day-old bread and into a bowl, crumble in the inside of the bread, which we call in Italian ‘Mollica’ and in Sicilian ‘Muddica’.
3. Into the same bowl add in your minced meat, 25g grated cheese, roughly chopped parsley and the garlic clove finely chopped with a good pinch of sea salt.
4. Mix the mixture well with your hands until all ingredients are fully combined and easy to mould into balls, “Polpette”.
5. Prepare a large frying pan with around half an inch of sunflower oil to shallow fry the Polpette. In the meantime, roll the Polpette to any size you prefer; we usually make 10 from this recipe.
6. Put the flour into a large bowl then place the Polpette into the flour and lightly coat.
7. Once all the Polpette are lightly coated in flour and your oil is hot, gently place the Polpette into the oil and cook until golden brown.
8. Remove the Polpette and place in an oven proof dish and add in 1 x jar of the sugo di pomodoro.
9. Place the ovenproof dish with the Polpette and sugo into the pre-heated oven, covered with a lid or foil and cook for 20-30 minutes until cooked all the way through.
10. In the meantime, take a saucepan and bring to the boil water for cooking the pasta. Season well with salt and cook al dente using the instructions on the pack to guide you.
11. Whilst the pasta and Polpette cook, take the pan you fried the Polpette in and drain the oil out. Place on a low heat and add in the second jar of sugo di pomodoro and gently heat through.
12. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add into the pan of simmering sugo di pomodoro and mix well to finish cooking the pasta in the sauce and drizzle with the Moresca extra virgin olive oil and grate inside 25g of Pecorino cheese.
13. At this stage, the Polpette should now be cooked so take it out of the oven, ready to assemble and serve the dish.
14. Finish the dish by plating up the pasta on a serving platter and scatter over the Polpette which should be nicely coated in the sugo from the oven dish. Drizzle an extra drop of Moresca olive oil and a final grate of pecorino cheese.

Buon appetito!

Recipe courtesy of strazzanti.co / @strazzanti_co

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