Polpettone, or Italian meatloaf, is a traditional dish, and every family has its own particular recipe, passed down from generation to generation. The one made in Naples is special because it’s full of ingredients that stray from the norm, such as stale bread, prosciutto and hard-boiled eggs. It’s a dish for parties and is usually served with a tomato sauce cooked separately, the type that would usually go with spaghetti.
Polpettone’s peasant origins
As with many traditional recipes, Neapolitan polpettone is also a peasant dish, created to avoid wasting leftovers, which then became a main dish for Italian family dinners. What sets the Neapolitan version apart is the use of ingredients that include not only ground meat or chopped up leftovers, but also soaked stale bread, cheese, prosciutto and hard boiled eggs. This is without doubt a very rich and substantial dish.
The recipe to make it the Neapolitan way
You will need 18 oz of ground beef, 9 oz of stale bread, 2 eggs, 1 cup of grated Parmigiano, 1 clove of garlic, butter, parsley, salt, pepper and oil for cooking. For the filling: 4 oz of prosciutto or mortadella, 2 hard boiled eggs, 4 oz of provolone cheese, basil.
First, soak the bread in plenty of water in a bowl and leave it for 10 minutes. Thoroughly squeeze it out, combine it with the meat and parsley and put it through the meat grinder, collecting the result in a bowl. Add the eggs, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, a knob of butter and chopped garlic; then knead it all together, spreading the meat out on a wet surface, into a rectangle a couple of fingers high. Arrange the prosciutto, sliced provolone cheese and boiled eggs on top, one after another lengthwise. Roll the meat around the eggs and form a loaf. In the meantime, heat the oil in a non-stick pan and then carefully put the meatloaf in the pan and cook over a high heat, turning occasionally so it forms an even crust on the surface. Then lower the heat, cover the pan and cook the meatloaf for about an hour. To keep it from splitting, you can wrap it in a thin gauze. Do remember to remove the gauze while it is still hot, though, otherwise the fat will soak into it and removing it will be impossible. Once cooked, wait for it to cool to room temperature before cutting it into slices and serving with your choice of side dish.