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Polpette di Tonno (Tuna Croquettes)

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6 March 2024

Polpette!

The usual translation of the Italian word polpette is “meatballs.”

But polpette are so much more.  Italians use the word polpette to refer to any “balls” made of chopped or ground up stuff including meat, fish, vegetables… you name it!

That leaves the translation a bit up in the air.  If the “balls” are made of meat I usually translate polpette as meatballs but if they’re made of other ingredients, as in this recipe, I usually translate it as croquettes.  Tuna meatballs just doesn’t sound right!  And eggplant meatballs is even worse!

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By the way, the singular of polpette is polpetta but who ever had just ONE meatball… or croquette!

I have other polpetta recipes coming in future blog posts but in the meantime, if you’re up for more meatball recipes, take a look at these two:

Marisa’s Mystical Meatballs

Italian Wedding Soup

The meatball mixture in the Wedding Soup makes scrumptious meatballs that can be fried and then simmered in tomato sauce rather than put into soup!

Once again, I find myself apologizing for a prolonged absence from my blog.  I have been working diligently on my latest cookbook, due out this spring, called
Dispatches from Calabria: Eating My Way Through Culinary School in Italy.

In the meantime, if you haven’t seen my first book,
Mastering Artisan Italian Gelato: Recipes and Techniques,
you can read about it HERE.

In the typical progression of an Italian meal, these croquettes would be served as a “secondo,”  what we Americans might call the main course except that in a full-on Italian meal the secondo would be preceded with a “primo,” which is usually pasta, soup or a rice dish.  A secondo is usually accompanied by one or more side dishes, “contorni.”

You might consider starting a meal with:

Pear, Celery and Arugula Salad with Lemon Dressing

For a pasta course, any of these would go well:

Pasta with Silky Zucchini Sauce

Bowtie Pasta with Peas

Angel Hair Pasta with Crispy Breadcrumbs

Along with the croquettes, you could select from the following side dishes:

Argentine Marinated Eggplant

Roasted Sweet Peppers

Green Beans with Parmesan Cheese

Rapini with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Red Pepper

Happy eating!

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Print Recipe
 Polpette di Tonno (Tuna Croquettes)
This recipe is from the Italian region of Molise. It can be made with fresh tuna instead of canned, if you desire. Gently cook and flake the fresh tuna. You’ll need about 12 ounces of flaked tuna to equal the amount in two 7-ounce cans. Simmer the croquettes in a simple, meatless tomato sauce. If you need a suggestion, try my Basic Tomato Sauce. A link to the recipe in the Notes below.
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Course Fish and Seafood
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Fish and Seafood
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Drain the tuna and squeeze out excess oil.
  2. Soak the bread in water. Squeeze out excess water.
  3. Combine all ingredients and mix with your fingers until you get a uniform mixture.
  4. Form into 14 portions.
  5. Roll into balls then flatten slightly.
  6. Dredge in flour then refrigerate one hour, if possible.
  7. Deep fry the croquettes then simmer in tomato sauce for about 10 minutes.
Recipe Notes

You can find the recipe for Basic Tomato Sauce HERE.

Copyright © 2024 by Gary J Mihalik. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Sri Lankan Fish Croquettes

2 Comments

December 26, 2018

OK, I’m going out on a limb again posting another Sri Lankan recipe.

Whenever I do that, fewer people open the email and even fewer look at the recipe.  Sri Lankan food just doesn’t garner the interest (among my readers, at least) that Italian food does.  Interestingly (or not, perhaps) my cousin’s Marinated Pasta Salad from two weeks ago got the largest response ever!

Although a majority of my recipes are Italian, I am reluctant to post ONLY Italian recipes.  There are just so many things that I like to cook…and therefore want to share…that I want to keep my options open.  What happens, if for example if I choose to post only Italian recipes and then want to post my recipe for Bourbon Brown Sugar Apricot Jam?  That most certainly is NOT Italian.  (But it is so, so good!)

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One possibility, I guess, would be to focus this blog on Italian food exclusively and to start a second blog that includes all the other foods I like to cook.  The majority of that food would end up being Asian with a smattering of Western Cuisines.  Bourbon Brown Sugar Apricot Jam would be just as out of place there as it would in an exclusively Italian-food-oriented blog. (And, I’m not sure I could keep two blogs going.)

Here’s my request:  Use the comment feature to let me know what you think about the options, or even come up with alternative suggestions, for how to focus the blog.  I plan to continue posting while I am in Italy for three months but that would be a great time to redesign the focus of the blog, if need be, and start fresh when I return.

Nanacy Rajapakse (left), who taught me the fundamentals of Sri Lankan cuisine, and her sister Thilaka in 2005.

As for the Fish Croquettes, these are actually called Fish Cutlets in Sri Lanka but croquettes would be a more common term in the West.  I think you’ll find that they go really well with cocktails and, if you didn’t tell anyone they were Sri Lankan, nobody would be the wiser.

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Over the next few months, I will post a few more of my favorite Sri Lankan recipes.  When I started doing this in the late summer, my plan was to post enough recipes for my readers to be able to put together a credible Sri Lankan meal, not that every dish I posted would need to be included but that I would have posted enough of an assortment of recipes to provide a good basis for selection.

Fishing boats in Sri Lanka

I am going to follow through on that plan in the coming months.  Upcoming recipes might include Beef Smoore, Devilled Cashews, Ghee Rice, Pol Sambol, Pork Badun, Beet Curry, Fish Curry, Pickled Lime, Pumpkin Curry, Tempered Cabbage and Peppers, and Wattalappam.  If you’ve got a favorite that you want me to post just let me know!

The blog will be an interesting juxtaposition over the next few months as I chronicle my culinary experience in Italy interspersed with Sri Lankan recipes.

Print Recipe
 Sri Lankan Fish Croquettes
Although Tuna is a traditional fish used for cutlets, almost any type of fish will work. Good quality frozen tuna can be used in place of fresh. Curry leaves can be found in many Asian markets. There really is no substitute for them in terms of taste but if not having access to curry leaves is the only thing preventing you from trying this recipe, use another fresh green herb such as basil, thyme, or oregano. These may be served warm or at room temperature.
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Course Appetizers and Nibbles, Fish and Seafood, Mains
Cuisine Sri Lankan
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 1/2 hours
Passive Time 4 hours
Servings
croquettes
Ingredients
For the croquettes
For dredging and frying
Course Appetizers and Nibbles, Fish and Seafood, Mains
Cuisine Sri Lankan
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 1/2 hours
Passive Time 4 hours
Servings
croquettes
Ingredients
For the croquettes
For dredging and frying
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Instructions
  1. Peel the potatoes. Cut them into pieces approximately ¾ inch on a side.
  2. Put the cut potatoes in a steamer basket. Sprinkle with ground black pepper to taste.
  3. Steam the potatoes over boiling water until tender, 15-25 minutes.
  4. Put the cooked potatoes into a mixing bowl.
  5. Cut the fish into strips approximately 1 ½ inches wide.
  6. Put the fish in the steamer basket. Sprinkle with ground black pepper to taste.
  7. Steam the fish over boiling water until fully cooked and flaky, 10-20 minutes. If the fish has skin, remove it after steaming.
  8. Put the fish on a plate to cool.
  9. Coarsely chop the green chiles
  10. Grind the onions and green chile in a food processor.
  11. Sauté the ground onion mixture, curry leaves, and cumin in the oil until the onion is soft but not brown, 6-8 minutes.
  12. Coarsely mash the partially cooled potato.
  13. Add the fish to the potato and mash again. The mixture should not be completely smooth but there should not be any really large chunks.
  14. Add the onion mixture and salt to the mashed potatoes and fish. Mix well.
  15. Add the eggs and then enough breadcrumbs to bind the mixture. The amount of breadcrumbs needed will vary based on the moisture content. Use your judgement and opt for making the mixture a little loose rather than overly stiff.
  16. Refrigerate, covered, for several hours for the breadcrumbs to fully hydrate.
  17. Taste and adjust salt (and chile if you wish).
  18. Divide into 50 portions. Shape each into a slightly flattened oval shape.
Final Assembly
  1. Season the flour with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
  2. Beat the four eggs lightly and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
  3. Dredge each croquette in flour, then dip in the beaten egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs.
  4. Refrigerate, uncovered, at least one hour before frying.
  5. Deep fry the croquettes at 350°F to 375°F until golden brown.
  6. Drain on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet.
Recipe Notes

Curry leaves have an alluring flavor that isn't really comparable to any other herb.  I recommend that you try to find them.  You will probably have extra left.  I suggest adding the whole fresh leaves to eggs before scrambling.

Fresh curry leaves

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Merluzzo in Umido (Cod in Light Tomato Sauce)

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January 4, 2017

The first time I had Merluzzo in Umido was November 1992.  My husband and I took my mother, his mother, and his fraternal grandmother to Santa Fe for a week over Thanksgiving.  At the time, we were living in Chicago.  We rented an ancient adobe house off Garcia Street.  The house didn’t have any central heat though it did have a frightening array of heating devices that included a kiva fireplace, a direct-vent gas heater in the living room, a portable electric heater in one of the bedrooms, wall-mounted electric radiant heaters in the bathrooms, and nothing in the kitchen.  If the oven wasn’t on, the kitchen was the coldest room in the house as it had three outside walls and a door that didn’t seal very well.

Of course, it was reported to be the coldest winter that Santa Fe had experienced in 100 years! In addition to cold, there was lots of snow. And there we were, in a drafty old adobe house with no central heat enjoying a week with the likes of The Golden Girls!

We had a blast.

We had been house hunting in Santa Fe since April of that year.  On that November trip we saw several houses we liked.  We spent a few evenings rating each of the houses on an array of factors using a spreadsheet.  (In my professional life, we would have called this a prioritization matrix or selection grid. It’s a technique I’ve taught to hundreds of health care professionals over several decades.)  One afternoon we all piled into the car to look at the two finalists in the property hunt.  We were uncertain which one to buy.  Not so the women.  A little house on Griffin Street was the undisputed, hands-down favorite.  Deal done!

We put in an offer and closed in January.  For most of December my mother kept saying that she wanted to go back to Santa Fe and stay in the house in the spring.  We did a bit of remodeling and moved into the house in March.  Unfortunately, my mother died in January, shortly before we closed on the house.  She never got to experience her dream of returning to Santa Fe.  We had that house for more than nine years before we moved into a much larger Santa Fe property in Ricardo-Legorreta-designed Zocalo.  After Zocalo, we built and moved into Villa Sentieri overlooking the city.

I frequently think of that trip.  It was memorable in so many ways.  We found our first house in Santa Fe.  I got to spend quality time with my mother in the last weeks of her life.  My husband and I had interviews to get our medical licenses in New Mexico.  (It’s the only time either of us has been personally interviewed for a medical license!).   And, I learned how to make Merluzzo in Umido, one of many recipes that my husband’s grandmother brought with her from Italy.

Print Recipe
 Merluzzo in Umido (Cod in Light Tomato Sauce)
If possible, by large filets of cod and portion them at home. Three pounds is enough for eight people. The advantage of portioning the fish at home is that you can make some smaller pieces for individuals with smaller appetites. Cod is a perfect fish for this dish because it is forgiving in terms of being overcooked. However, any firm, white, non-oily fish will taste great. I used a 15-inch rondeau to cook the cod. It held the fish in a single layer. If you don’t have a pan large enough to hold the fish in one layer, make the sauce in a single sauté pan then divide it among two different pans to cook the fish.
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Course Fish and Seafood
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Fish and Seafood
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Cut the cod into 8 to 10 serving pieces. Though you can cook whole filets, it will be easier to get the fish out of the pan if cut into portions.
  2. In rondeau large enough to hold the fish in one layer, sauté the onion and a sprinkling of salt in the olive oil until transparent and slightly golden but not brown.
  3. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  4. Add parsley and some freshly ground black pepper. Sauté for a minute or two. The smell of parsley should become noticeably more potent. Do not brown the ingredients of the pan.
  5. Add the wine and cook briskly until the wine evaporates.
  6. Add the tomato paste. Sauté, stirring frequently, until it gets ever so slightly darker and begins to smell sweet. This will take 2-3 minutes.
  7. Add the water, oregano, basil and additional salt and pepper to taste. Boil gently, with the cover slightly askew for 20-30 minutes. The sauce will thicken. If it becomes too thick, add a little additional water. However, the juices from the fish will thin the sauce so it is better for the sauce to start out too thick rather than two thin. The sauce can be made ahead to this point.
  8. With the sauce at a medium boil, add the fish, skin side down. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the pot tightly and cook for approximately 20 minutes until the fish cooks through an flakes easily. The length of time will depend on the type of fish, thickness of the portions, and elevation. Do not turn the fish but occasionally spoon some of the sauce over the top of the cooking fish.
  9. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. If the sauce it too thick thin with a little water. If it is too thin, boil it briskly after removing the fish.
  10. Put the fish on a deep serving platter. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.
Recipe Notes

Parsley stems can be bitter.  When adding parsley to a recipe, I only use the leaves and very tender stems.  To do this, I hold the end of the parsley stem in one hand and slide the stem between the thumb and finger of the other hand.  When my fingers reach the leaves, I pinch off the stem and discard it.  This makes quick work of the parsley and removes any chance of bitterness from the stems.

Copyright © 2017 by VillaSentieri.com.  All rights reserved.

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