You will need
For the sauce
- 3 tbsp Good Olive Oil
- 3 Garlic cloves (thinly sliced)
- 2-3 Yellow onions (chopped)
- ½ Red onion (chopped)
- Chili flakes
- 2 Anchovies and some oil
- 1-2 Celery stalk (chopped)
- 1 Carrot (chopped)
- 5-6 Mushrooms (chopped)
- 1 can Peeled tomatoes Prunotto Mariangela
- 1 can Tomato puree Prunotto Mariangela
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- Water
For the”Polpette”
- 400 g cutted fresh meat
- 3 Garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 Tbsp Fennel seeds
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 Tbsp Breadcrumbs
- 1 Egg
- 1½ cup Flour (Optional)
- Olive Oil (Optional)
How to do
For the sauce
- Heat the olive oil in a pot until it shimmers. Add the onions and let them soften a bit. Add a bit of salt & pepper.
- After a few minutes add the garlic and stir. Make a clear spot in the pot and add a pinch of chili flakes. Let them toast a little.
- Next, make another clearing and add the anchovies and a little of their oil from the container. Let them melt a bit, you’ll smell them! Stir everything around and then add the chopped celery, carrots and mushrooms. Another touch of salt & pepper and then let everything cook for 3-4 minutes.
- While this is happening, open the canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and break off the harder end parts.
- Once again, make a big clearing and add the tomato paste. Caramelize the paste for a few minutes. Slowly mix in some of the cooking vegetables into the paste until everything is blended in the pot and is a deep red from the paste.
- Now pour in the tomatoes. As to not waste anything, rinse the tomato can with water to about half full. Now use that water to clean out the bowl you had the tomatoes in. Last, pour that water into the pot. Stir things around and get a feel for how thick the sauce is. You may want to add more water or leave it as it is.
- Put the heat to almost full to bring to a boil. Add some more salt & pepper and finally the sugar. One last stir and then reduce the heat to low and cover. Stir every so often.
- After an hour you can remove the pot from the heat and blend with a hand blender until smooth or leave it chunky.
- The sauce is now ready or you can go over the top by adding meatballs and placing it back on the heat from another 45 minutes to an hour. The fat from the sausage will change the flavour of the sauce.
for the Polpette
- mixed the meal and put in bowl. Add garlic, fennel seeds, mustard, breadcrumbs and the egg. Mix together well with your hands.
- Roll together meatballs to about the size of a golf ball. From here you can place them into the sauce as listed above.
- For more insanity roll the meatballs in the flour, shake off the excess, and fry in the olive oil. Once browned all over, let them drain on a wire rack and then place in the sauce to continue cooking.
Buon Appetito!