What is Polpette?
It is a ball of ground meat, fish or vegetables. It is covered with flour or breadcrumbs and then fried in oil.
How do you make meatless Polpette?
Easy. You can make any kind of Polpette, as long as you have enough imagination and you know how to pair ingredients. The sky is the limit! My kids love meatballs, but since I am trying to be a good mom, I am reinventing recipes to make my kids eat more vegetables. So I decided to make meatballs without meat for my kids! LOL
What is the easiest way to make Polpette?
I used 4 eggplants, cut into small cubes, added red onion cut into small cubes and garlic cloves. I put all my ingredients together in a bowl and poured some vegetable oil on them. I mixed carefully, added the spices and spread the vegetables onto a baking sheet. I placed that baking sheet into the oven for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. While it was cooking I went back to work 😉
After 35 minutes, you need to let it cool until you are ready to roll the balls and fry them for supper! When you are ready to roll them, put all the cooled vegetables into a bowl, add the eggs, the breadcrumbs, and the cheeses, and mix carefully with a wooden spoon.
To make the balls, take some of that mixture and roll it into a ball. I usually have 2 plates in addition to the bowl: one for the breadcrumbs and one for rolled balls. I roll with my hands, then cover the ball with the breadcrumbs and place it onto the other plate ready to be cooked! That’s it! It takes about 15 minutes to roll them all and at most 15 minutes to fry.
Eggplant Polpette
Ingredients
Eggplants Mix
- 3 eggplants cut in small cubes
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp dry basil
- 2 tbsp dry oregano
- 2 red onions
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
Eggplant Polpette
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup parmigiano cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 cups breadcrumbs
Instructions
Eggplants Mix
- Preheat the oven at 375 degrees.
- Cut the eggplants into small cubes, and then put them into a bowl.
- Diced the red onions and put them into the same bowl with the eggplants.
- Add the vegetable oil, and the spices and mix.
- Spread all the vegetables onto a baking sheet and bake the vegetables for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. When cooked let them cool down, this way it will easier to roll them.
The Eggplant Polpette
- Put all the cooked vegetables into a bowl.
- Add the eggs, the cheese and the breadcrumbs and mix with a wooden spoon.
- Pour 2 cups of breadcrumbs onto a flat plate. This will be for breading the Polpette.
- Take a spoon and take the quantity that you want in order to make the eggplant balls. Roll all your Polpette and set aside.
- Take each ball and roll them into breadcrumbs, do this procedure for all of them. Then set them aside.
- Into a skillets pour some oil. You don't want to deep fry them. Pour just enough oil to cook one side at a time. It takes about 3 minutes per side. If you have a deep fryer you can do it too, just follow the instruction of your machine:)
Notes
