Surprise meatballs
( Polpette con sorpresa )

Surprise meatballs recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Boil the quail eggs for 4 minutes or according to the instructions in the package.
• - Put them under the running cold water immediately in order to remove their shell easily.
• - Halve the eggs.
• - Put the egg, meat, aromatic herbs, soy sauce and some breadcrumbs in a bowl.
• - Season to taste with salt and begin amalgamating all the ingredients at first with a spoon and then with your hands.
• - Add other breadcrumbs if the mixture is too soft.
  It’s difficult to say how much breadcrumbs is necessary because it depends on many factors.
• - The mixture must be soft but firm.
• - At this point prepare the meatballs.
• - Put some mixture on the socket of your hand and half an egg in its centre.
• - Envelop the egg with the meat.
• - Dip the meatballs into some breadcrumbs.
• - Pour the olive oil into a frying pan.
• - Let the meatballs fry lightly on a medium heat on every side.
  Be careful: don’t break them!
• - At this point pour in the wine, lower the flame and continue cooking, half-covered, until the cooking juice is well retired.
• - Brown the meatballs and switch off the gas.

Just before serving

• - Your dish is ready if you serve surprise meatballs hot.
• - These meatballs are tasty cold too!

Note

Tips

• - You can serve surprise meatballs hot, lukewarm or cold.
• - You can prepare the meatballs the day before.
• - If you want, you can add 1 tablespoons grated Parmesan and 1 little onion (chopped) to the mixture .

Menu planning

• - Surprise meatballs can be served as delicious finger food in a buffet for all seasons or your happy hour. In this case skewer each meatball on a toothpick. For a better visual effect lie your meatballs on a bed of seasonal salad as you can see in the photo.
  Another menu idea: prepare these meatballs as morsels for an assorted antipasto, Italian-style.
  If combined with other finger food or tidbits the doses for these meatballs are sufficient for more than 4 people. Finally, these meatballs, rather small, may also be a main dish especially if you have kids. The idea of surprise is always inviting!

Healthy eating

• - The calories and fat of these small meatballs seem low but keep in mind that in reality they are prepared with only 250 grams (8.8 ounces) of meat for 4 people. So if you choose them as main dish you have to plan your menu in this way: open your dinner with minestrone or other vegetable soup and, if you are still hungry, serve a salad or raw vegetables in season to accompany your meatballs.
  Remember: protein shoul be served at dinner.
• - Special occasion menu. As we've just written you can also choose surprise meatballs for a buffet menu. Don't worry about fat, calories, sugars ... it happens rarely, doesn't it?

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Surprise meatballs "?

Our suggestion is Dolcetto di Dogliani (Italian red wine of Piedmont - Italy). Read more details on the wine card dedicated to Dolcetto di Dogliani Superiore. We like pairing surprise meatballs with another wine: Merlot Lison Pramaggiore (near Venetia). We like particularly the Merlot producted by the firm Le Carline.