Gennaro's Hidden Italy

Gennaro Contaldo · Gennaro's Hidden Italy

When I was a child, we would often have polpette (dumplings), made from stale bread and cheese, especially on Fridays and during Lent when meat was forbidden. To me, it’s a shame that this dish has declined in popularity over the years, with the preference for minced meat taking centre stage in most meatball recipes, as here, the bread and ricotta make the polpette so soft they almost melt in your mouth. This is delicious cooked in a tomato sauce and served with a green side salad for a meat-free meal.

Gennaro Contaldo · Gennaro's Hidden Italy

I discovered this example of Ancient Roman cuisine through the Historical Italian Cooking Blog, which quoted it from the Apicius, a collection of Roman recipes, which may date back to the 5th century. The original recipe uses a whole suckling pig and the herbs lovage and rue in the sauce. However, I have adapted this, preferring fennel seeds and rocket in place of rue, a very bitter herb no longer recommended as edible. In Ancient Rome, garum (a fermented fish sauce) was widely used as a condiment for this feast. The modern-day equivalent, colatura di alici, is made from fresh anchovies. It has quite a pungent flavour so should be used sparingly, but combined with runny honey, herbs and spices, it really works.