In short. Bread balls — polpette di pane — are what Puglia does with yesterday’s loaf: stale bread soaked in milk, bound with egg and pecorino, fried, and then simmered in a light tomato sauce. No meat, and nobody misses it.
This is the frugal Apulian kitchen at its most characteristic. Bread was never thrown away, and the dish that came out of not throwing it away ended up better than many that start with meat.
Ingredients
- about 450 g of stale Italian bread, ideally with a thick, hard crust — the bread of Altamura or Laterza is the one to use
- 1 whole egg
- grated pecorino — sharper than parmesan, and that is the point
- salt, minced garlic and parsley, to your own taste
- milk, enough to cover the bread
- extra virgin olive oil, enough for deep frying
Method
1. Soaking. Break the bread into big chunks and put it in the milk. Let it become thoroughly soggy.
2. Squeezing. Take the bread out and squeeze it hard — this step decides whether the balls hold together.
3. Mixing. Add the egg, pecorino, garlic, parsley and salt, and blend well.
4. Shaping. Form into balls, using a tablespoon to shape them.
5. Frying. Fry in the olive oil until deep golden. Drain well.
6. Optional, and worth it. Simmer them in a light tomato sauce for about an hour.
Make them the day before. They genuinely taste better the next day, once they have sat in the sauce — which also makes this one of the few fried dishes worth cooking in advance.
Why that bread. Altamura bread is made from durum wheat semolina, with a thick dark crust and a dense yellow crumb that holds its structure after soaking. Soft sandwich bread turns to paste and the balls fall apart in the pan.
The rest of the main courses are on the second courses page.
