A Spring Sunday Supper
Recipes for Polpette in Swiss Chard-Tomato Sauce; and Citrus-Vanilla Chiffon Cake
Welcome to Buona Domenica, a weekly newsletter of Italian home cooking and baking. I’m a journalist, cooking teacher, occasional tour guide, and author of eight cookbooks on Italian cuisine.
Cookbook Winner: The lucky winner of At Nonna’s Table is: Jolene Handy! Congratulations, Jolene—please check your inbox for an email from me.
This week’s newsletter features two recipes for a simple, elegant spring Sunday supper: Polpette in Sugo con Bietola, or Meatballs in Swiss Chard Tomato Sauce; and Torta Fluffosa ai Fiori di Sicilia, a citrus- and vanilla-scented light-as-air chiffon cake. The meatball recipe is free to all subscribers; the cake is a bonus recipe for paid subscribers.
Click here to browse through the newsletter archive. If you’re looking for a particular recipe, you’ll find all Buona Domenica recipes—152 and counting—indexed here, ready to download and print—a function for paid subscribers.
If you are able to do so, please consider supporting my work by becoming a paid subscriber.
On to the newsletter…
When you create recipes for a living, sooner or later some of them fall by the wayside, by which I mean: you forget about them. Even those that have graced the cover of a book.
I was reminded of one such recipe a couple of weeks ago when my husband and I met up for dinner with one of my dearest friends in the food world, Diane Morgan, and her husband, Greg. Diane and I live on opposite sides of the country, so we don’t get to see each other often. She is the author of many beautiful cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes. She was my mentor when I was beginning my cookbook writing career—she is truly one of the most generous and giving people I know in this business—and we have now been friends for (gulp) two decades.
Although we had not seen one another in person for about eight years, we fell into easy conversation, as though we had all gotten together just last week. We covered the essentials—family, travel, work, health, and more—amid plates of sparkling tuna and yellowtail crudo, house-baked sfincione, house-made paccheri alla Norma and squid ink tagliolini, and spigola al cartoccio—black bass baked in parchment. (For those of you who are local to the DMV, I wholeheartedly recommend the new Cucina Morini, helmed by Chef Matt Adler. It’s an homage to the coastal cuisine of southern Italy.)
Eventually, the topic of home cooking came up (how could it not?) and we began listing which of each others’ recipes is on regular rotation to make for dinner. I cook a lot of Diane’s recipes, but the two that I make most often are the turkey burgers from Grill Every Day, which are seasoned with cilantro, scallions, fresh ginger and garlic, and soy sauce; and the turkey pot pie from The Thanksgiving Table, which I make year-round with chicken.
When Diane and Greg both mentioned that one of their favorite recipes of mine is the Polpette in Sugo con Bietola (meatballs in Swiss chard-tomato sauce) from my book Rustic Italian, I thought: huh. Not because I was surprised (it’s a good recipe!), but because when I paused to think about it, I could not remember the last time I made it. (I have a handful of meatball recipes out in the world and the ones I’ve been making lately are the chicken and ricotta meatballs from Everyday Italian.)
I pulled out my copy of Rustic Italian the next day and read the recipe. How many years had it been? Five? More, probably. I remember loving the combination of the smooth tomato sauce, silky sautéed chard and plump sweet-tart sultanas, a sweet and savory bath in which to simmer meatballs. Like a lot of my recipes, the dish is not strictly regional or traditional, but a sort of mishmash of both those things plus my own meddling. Combining greens and golden raisins is a classic southern Italian preparation, and I liked the idea of enhancing the tomato sauce in this way. Also, chard is hands down one of my favorite leafy vegetables, earthy and slightly bitter with a suggestion of sweetness. It’s lighter than kale or rapini, perfect for these sort of in-between days of spring.
Typically, dishes that include greens and raisins also include pine nuts, but I left these out as my daughter is severely allergic to them. And with the meatballs, I felt they weren’t necessary anyway, though you could certainly toss in a handful. Rereading the recipe, it seemed to me that it would benefit from a slight refreshing, so I’ve done a little tweaking of the original—have I mentioned lately that I am an inveterate tweaker of recipes? I increased the ratio of bread to meat in the meatball mixture to make them fluffier; and rather than serve the dish on its own or with pasta, I spooned it over a bed of creamy polenta.
It went down exceptionally well on a recent rainy and cool Sunday evening, followed by a simple torta fluffosa, a fluffy chiffon cake scented with citrus and vanilla, for dessert.
Readers: What do you enjoy cooking for dinner on a cool spring evening? Let us know in the comments.
RECIPE: Polpette in Swiss Chard-Tomato Sauce
Tender meatballs are simmered in a sauce of tomatoes and braised chard. Golden raisins, plumped up in the sauce, add a surprising, welcome agro-dolce punch that is borrowed from Sicilian tradition. Serve this as is, with bread to mop up the sauce; or spoon the meatballs and sauce over a soft bed of polenta. It makes a lovely one-dish meal for early spring, when you want something comforting, but not too hearty.
I’ve slightly adapted the recipe from my original version, adding more bread to the meatball mixture to make then even more tender; and shallow-frying them in a wok rather than baking them. Either method works (see Cook’s Note at the end of the recipe).
Makes 6 to 8 servings
INGREDIENTS
For the meatballs:
2 cups (120 g) fresh bread crumbs, from sturdy, open-crumb bread
1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk
3/4 pound (340 g) ground pork
3/4 pound (340 g) ground veal or beef
1 clove garlic, grated
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon dry white wine
Fine sea salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Sunflower oil for frying (see Cook’s Note)
For the sauce:
1 clove garlic, lightly smashed
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound (500 g) Swiss chard, stems cut into bite-sized pieces, leaves sliced crosswise
Fine sea salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/3 cup (45 g) golden raisins
4 cups tomato passata (purée)
For the polenta:
1 cup (120 g) finely ground polenta (cornmeal)
1/2 cup (60 g) medium-ground polenta
6 cups (1.4 L) water
2 teaspoons fine sea salt, plus more as needed
3 tablespoons butter
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Make the meatballs. Combine the bread crumbs and milk in a small bowl and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes, until the bread is softened. Squeeze out the excess milk and place the bread in a large bowl. Add the pork and veal, garlic, cheese, parsley, wine, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour in the egg and mix everything together thoroughly. Form the mixture into small (two-bite) meatballs and arrange them on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper or parchment. Set them aside (in the refrigerator if you have space) while you start the sauce.
2. Make the Swiss chard-tomato sauce. Place the garlic and olive oil in a large sauté pan or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Cook, pressing on the garlic once or twice, for about 3 minutes, until the garlic releases its flavor. Stir in the chard stems, raise the heat to medium, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the leaves, cover, and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt and the red pepper flakes and cook another 5 minutes, until the chard releases some juices.
3. Stir in the golden raisins. There should be some pan juices from the chard at this point, but if not, pour in about 1/2 cup water and cook for a few minutes to allow the raisins to plump up. Stir in the tomato passata and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low to low and simmer gently while you cook the meatballs.
4. Fry the meatballs. Heat about 1/2-inch (1-cm) sunflower oil in a skillet or wok (I use a wok) over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add 6 to 10 meatballs, taking care not to overcrowd the pan or they won’t fry properly. Fry, turning from time to time to get even color on the meatballs, then use a slotted spoon or spider to transfer them directly to the sauce. Fry the remaining meatballs in batches, adding them to the sauce once browned. Cover the sauce pot partially and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.
5. Make the polenta. You can start this while the meatballs are simmering in the sauce. Measure the water and salt into a medium heavy-bottomed high-sided saucepan or Dutch oven and whisk in the cornmeal in a steady stream. Adding the cornmeal before the water heats up will prevent lumps. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring often to prevent the polenta from sticking to the bottom of the pot, for about 45 minutes, until the grains are fully cooked. The polenta should be thick and creamy but still pourable. If you find it is too thick towards the end of cooking, stir in a little more water. When the polenta is done, taste and season with more salt if needed. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter.
6. Serve. Spoon the polenta a deep serving platter and spoon the meatballs and sauce on top. Sprinkle freshly grated Parmigiano cheese on top and serve. Or: spoon the polenta into individual shallow bowls and spoon the meatballs and sauce on top. Sprinkle each with cheese and serve.
Cook’s Note: If you prefer, you can bake the meatballs rather than fry them. Heat the oven to 400° F (200° C) before you start making the meatball mixture. Place the meatballs on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and bake until nicely browned, 20 to 30 minutes. Make the sauce while the meatballs are baking and add them directly to the sauce once they come out of the oven. Simmer for about 20 minutes to allow the meatballs to absorb the sauce. Serve as directed above.
Click the button below for a printable version of the recipe, accessible to paid subscribers.
RECIPE: Torta Fluffosa ai Fiori di Sicilia
Torta Fluffosa is what Italians have taken to calling chiffon cakes, those classic cakes that are baked in tube pans and rise tall, with a fluffy, foamy crumb. My mother adored them, especially those perfumed with citrus. Although for many years I preferred the crumblier, “cakier” American-style layer cakes made with butter and lavishly frosted, I am now firmly in the chiffon camp, and I love the light, bouncy texture of this cake.
Fiori di Sicilia is a flavor extract made from citrus oils and vanilla. It comes in small bottles, like vanilla extract, which you can buy online, but it is expensive, and the flavor can be overpowering. Here, I’ve substituted finely grated citrus zest, plus a full tablespoon of pure vanilla extract. This achieves essentially the same flavor, but more subtly so.
I don’t bother to frost this cake; all it needs is a dollop of softly whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and fresh berries, either plain or macerated in a little sugar and lemon juice.
Click on the button below for the full, printable recipe. The recipe is accessible to paid subscribers.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please do me a small favor and click on the little heart icon at the top of the post, and share it with the Italian food lovers in your life. To keep up with my daily goings on in the kitchen, follow me on Instagram.
As always, thank you for reading, subscribing, and sharing.
Alla prossima,
Domenica
Am very partial to meatballs and to Swiss chard, so this recipe sounds right up by treat. The name 'torta fluffosa' for chiffon cakes is fab! Complimenti to Daniela for another lovely illustration!
The polpette! Also, just the word “Fluffosa” makes me smile! 😃 😋 also: the cat stretch! another brilliant and delicious post, Domenica!