TURKEY POLPETTONE WITH ROCKET

Remember the polpettone with spinach that I showed you a couple of weeks ago? Well, I decided to adapt the recipe and make it "mine" by using rocket instead of spinach as I thought it would give a nice peppery flavour and it has the advantage of not needing pre-cooking. I left out the chilli pepper flakes, added peppers to the polpettone as well as the sauce and made some other adjustments too: 

OK, let's start with the sauce: finely chop 1 medium white onion, 2 cloves of garlic and a red pepper. Soften these in 2 tablsp olive oil, then add the contents of a 400 gr can of pomodorini [cherry tomatoes] or of chopped tomatoes. Stir and add the contents of a 200 gr box of passata too. Stir well, season and then add 75 gr washed and chopped rocket, the leaves of 2 sprigs of thyme, a little dried oregano and about 4 torn basil leaves. Now add 12 fresh datterini or cherry tomatoes, squash them a bit with the back of your mixing spoon as you stir the mixture and then let it all cook over a low flame for about 30 mins. Turn off the heat. 

Now for the polpettone: in a large bowl, mix a tablesp of the tomato sauce with 500 gr minced turkey, 1 finely chopped red pepper and 1 finely chopped yellow pepper, 1 beaten egg, another 75 gr washed and chopped rocket and about 8 tablesp pangrattato [or fine fresh breadcrumbs]. Line a baking tray with foil and on top of this, dampened baking paper and here's the fun part! Oil your hands and form the mixture into a long, oval loaf shape. Plonk it onto the tray, wrap the baking paper round it as if it were a sweet and tie the ends with cooking string - it should look a bit like a Christmas cracker. Cook at 180 C for about 50 mins. You can serve this at room temperature with some of the cooled sauce but it will firm up and be easier to slice if you refigerate it for a few hours and serve it cold with the sauce chilled.

This time I remembered to serve the sauce in yellow pepper shells!

POLPETTONE DI TACCHINO

I enjoyed making this polpettone filled with minced turkey breast and spinach at the weekend.  You use some of the sauce, which is made with tomatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper, thyme, a little more spinach and red chilli pepper flakes, to moisten the mixture. [I speeded up the sauce making process by substituting a can of pomodorini - peeled cherrry tomatoes - and the contents of a small box of passata for fresh tomatoes.] For those of you who are in Italy, the recipe can be found in the April 25th edition of Donna Moderna.  The illustration in the magazine shows the sauce served in yellow pepper shells but I couldn't get any yellow peppers last week so that will be for next time.  This dish is good served hot or cold.

POLPETTONE WITH PEPPERS

I had fun making this pork polpettone at the weekend.  It contains red peppers, green olives and mozzarella and is flavoured with sweet paprika and basil leaves.  For those of you who are in Italy, the recipe is in the May edition of Cucina Moderna.

NATALE DA GINA

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend the main celebration, late on Christmas Eve,  and Christmas Day lunch, with my friend Gina and her family.  As regular readers will know, Gina is a wonderful cook and when her mother-in-law is there too, the feasting never ends!  So without further ado, here is what we all ate over Christmas:

Christmas Eve began with a choice of red pasta

or white pasta with mushrooms but of course, we all had both!

Then there was fried baccalà [salt cod].  [I can't eat this because I am allergic to fish.]

Whenever Gina's mother-in-law presides, there is a wonderful polpettone

and Gina had made this steak pie:

There were condimenti of dressed peppers

and patate al forno cooked with rosemary:

There were fennel and green salads too [not shown] and then there was fresh fruit to clear the palate

before we embarked upon Gina's homemade torrone

and her mother-in-law's delicious almond biscuits:

Finally there was panettone [not shown] and then it was midnight and time to open the presents.

A good night's sleep and suddenly it was time for Christmas Day lunch, beginning with this delightful antipasti arrangement:

Then there was pasta al forno

 followed by special sausages

and this dish of meltingly tender lamb with potatoes.

After the salads, there was gel al limone

 and of course there was a tray of Sicilian pastries

followed by panettone which could be cut into star shapes:

If you're wondering if I can still stand up after that lot, the answer is just about!  Thank you, Gina and family for a wonderful Christmas.

COLD POLPETTONE OF VEAL

This veal polpettone [which is a kind of meat loaf] from a recipe in this month's La Cucina Italiana, turned out a bit crumbly but it did not, as I thought it might, fall apart.  Again, I can't reproduce the copyright recipe but I can tell you that it contains minced veal, breadcrumbs, grated grana cheese and lots of basil.  The zucchini, which were cooked with it, should really have been cubed but I declined to spend the evening doing that and opted for the processor instead.  I liked the simple way of preparing the cherry tomatoes to accompany the dish:  just spread the tomatoes on oiled baking paper on a baking tray, prick them with a fork, drizzle with lemon juice, season with seasalt and cook them for about half an hour in a hot oven.

Actually the polpettone tasted good hot, too but it is just the dish for a sweltering day.