Polpette alla carbonara

This week we have another riff on carbonara for you from my last trip to Rome. I discovered it at a restaurant called Polpetta. Working under the jocular slogan tutto è polpettabile—”you can make anything into a meatball”—Polpetta specializes in turning all kinds of classic Roman and Italian dishes into meatball form. While a lot of items on the menu were tempting, I opted for the polpette alla carbonara, chicken meatballs with a carbonara sauce.

The choice of chicken for the meatballs seemed odd to me at the time-although the dish was delicious—but as I researched it a little bit with a view to recreating the dish at home, I was reminded that polpette di pollo are a traditional Roman Jewish dish. So here we are, once again, with a kind of ‘fusion’ dish of two classic Roman dishes, this time pairing a dish in the Roman Jewish tradition with the very unkosher carbonara. And in fact the mild flavor of the chicken provides a excellent foil for the intense flavor of the sauce.

I have to say I was very pleased with my copycat version of polpette alla carbonara. In fact, at the risk of sounding immodest, I liked it even better than the dish I had at Polpetta, though that was very good indeed. So I knew I had to share it with my readers. And let me tell you, it’s defintely worth a try!

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

• 1 lb (500g) ground chicken breast
• 75g (2-1/2 oz) breadcrumbs or 2 slices stale bread
• 50ml (1/4 cup) warm chicken broth (or water) or as much as needed
• 1 egg
• A few sprigs fresh parsley, finely minced
• salt and pepper
• A pinch of cinnamon (optional)
• A pinch of nutmeg (optional)

For frying and braising the meatballs:

• 100-150g guanciale, cut into strips or cubes
• 350ml (1-1/2 cup) water
• olive oil

To finish the dish:

• 6 egg yolks
• 2-3 heaping Tbs freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

Form the chicken balls

Moisten the bread or breadcrumbs with the warm chicken broth or water and let rest for about 10 minutes. If using bread, squeeze it of any excess moisture and shred.

In a large mixing bowl, add the ground chicken, moistened bread(crumbs), eggs and minced parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix until you have a uniform paste. Let rest for a good 10-15 minutes. If you find the mixture too soft, add more chicken or breadcrumbs to firm it up a bit and let it rest 5 minutes more.

With lightly floured hands, form the chicken mixture into small balls about the size of walnuts and place on a cookie sheet until needed.

Fry and simmer the chicken balls

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet and add guanciale. Sauté gently until the guanciale has rendered most of its fat and lightly browned. Remove and set aside.

Toss the chicken balls in the flour, then add them to the skillet, shaking off any excess flour. Sauté over a moderate flame, tossing almost constantly, until they are golden all over.

Add the water or broth. Cover with the lid ajar and simmer gently for about 10-15 minutes.

Finish the dish

Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and grated cheese, together with a good grinding of black pepper.

When the meatballs are done, remove them to a serving dish. Take the skillet off the heat. Wait for a few moments until the sauce has completely stopped bubbling. Then pour over the carbocrema , and immediately whisk vigorously to create a creamy sauce.

Pour the sauce over and around the chicken balls and sprinkle with the guanciale. Top if you like with more ground pepper and/or grated cheese.

Serve immediately.

Notes on polpette alla carbonara

I have to admit, this was my first time working with ground chicken and it was an interesting experience, Ground chicken is much softer and stickier than either beef or pork, so be prepared. And after adding the egg, the mixture was tricky to work with. I found letting the mixture rest for a few minutes helped, as did using floured hands to form the balls.

If these things matter to you, you can use a ice cream scoop to form perfectly round meatballs. And be sure to toss them constantly as they brown in your skillet. This mixture is so soft that they will become misshapen if you let them sit still in the skillet for any length of time. (It’s an issue with most meatballs, I find, when you sauté or shallow fry them, as opposed to deep frying or oven roasting, but especially problematic when working with chicken.)

And, of course, the trickiest part of making polpette alla carbonara, as in any kind of carbonara, is the finish. You want the egg yolk and cheese mixture to thicken the liquid in the pan into a smooth, creamy sauce. If the skilet is too hot, the egg will scramble, so do make sure you wait until the skillet cools down a bit before you add it, and then be quick to whisk the skillet off heat before the egg has a chance to set.

The meatballs

For the chicken meatballs, I drew inspiration from two recipes, primarily one in The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews by Edde Servi Machlin. Machlin’s simple recipe for ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs and parsley, I thought, would pair well with the carbonara sauce. And it also seemed the close to the mild but tender chicken balls I had at Polpetta.

But I also found a recipe from Katie Parla‘s Tasting Rome from the city’s Jewish community. Her chicken meatballs included a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg, as well as ground pistachios and, in more typically Italian style, moistened stale bread rather than breadcrumbs. While I don’t recall Polpetta’s chicken meatballs having any spices, in my recipe testing I just fell in love with their flavor, so I’ve included them as optional here. (I didn’t bother with the pistachios.)

Note that neither of these recipes calls for the usual grated cheese, and so I haven’t either. This, of course, reflects kosher prohibition against mixing meat and dairy. Though since the carbonara sauce is about as un-kosher as one could imagine, I suppose you could add cheese to the meatballs as well if you like, though I didnt miss it as there’s plenty cheese flavor coming from the sauce.

In the origial Jewish recipe for polpette di pollo, the chicken meatballs are sautéed in a soffritto of olive oil and either garlic (Machlin) or shallot (Parla), then deglazed with wine (Parla only) and simmered in water or broth. The resulting sauce is finished with lemon juice and more parsley. In Parla’s recipe, the chicken balls are lightly floured, which provides a slight liaison for the sauce, something that you don’t really need here since the egg and cheese will thicken the sauce.

You could use ground turkey intead of chicken, which might be even tastier. Or you could opt for standard beef and pork meatballs or—even better, I should think—all pork.

Making ahead

It’s not advisable to try making polpette alla carbonara entirely ahead, but you can make the meatballs ahead—they even freeze well—but do wait until you’re ready to serve to finish the dish.

Ristorante “Polpetta”

If you want to try Polpetta on your next trip to Italy, it has a two locations, one in Rome and one in Milan. The one we hit was in Trastevere located in the famous casa della Fornarina, where the artist Raffaello’s eponymous mistress, a baker’s daughter, is said to have lived. It seems this location has closed. Too bad because the setting with its peaceful courtyard, was really charming. They’ve moved to a lcoation near the Gasometro off the via Ostiense.

As mentioned at the top, the menu features any number of classic dishes (both Roman and non) transformed into meatball form including cacio e pepe, gricia, amatriciana, cotoletta alla milanese, salsicce e friarelli (from Naples), as well as your standard meatballs fried or simmered in tomato sauce. Oddly enough, it seems they’ve taken polpette alla carbonara off the menu. so if you’re intrigued by this dish, you’ll just have to try my recipe…

Print Recipe

Polpette alla carbonara

Chicken Meatballs in Carbonara Sauce

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Lazio

Servings: 4

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

• 1 lb 500g ground chicken breast
• 75 g 2-1/2 oz breadcrumbs or 2 slices stale bread
• 50 ml 1/4 cup warm chicken broth (or water) or as much as needed
• 1 egg
• A few sprigs fresh parsley finely minced
• salt and pepper
• A pinch of cinnamon optional
• A pinch of nutmeg optional

For frying and braising the meatballs:

• 100-150 g guanciale cut into strips or cubes
• 350 ml 1-1/2 cup water
• olive oil

For the finishing the dish:

• 6 egg yolks
• 2-3 heaping Tbs freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Form the chicken balls

• Moisten the bread or breadcrumbs with the warm chicken broth or water and let rest for about 10 minutes. If using bread, squeeze it of any excess moisture and shred.
• In a large mixing bowl, add the ground chicken, moistened bread(crumbs), eggs and minced parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix until you have a uniform paste. Let rest for a good 10-15 minutes. If you find the mixture too soft, add more chicken or breadcrumbs to firm it up a bit and let it rest 5 minutes more.
• With lightly floured hands, form the chicken mixture into small balls about the size of walnuts and place on a cookie sheet until needed.

Fry and simmer the chicken balls

• Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet and add guanciale. Sauté gently until the guanciale has rendered most of its fat and lightly browned. Remove and set aside.
• Toss the chicken balls in the flour, then add them to the skillet, shaking off any excess flour. Sauté over a moderate flame, tossing almost constantly, until they are golden all over.
• Add the water or broth. Cover with the lid ajar and simmer gently for about 10-15 minutes.

Finish the dish

• Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and grated cheese, together with a good grinding of black pepper.
• When the meatballs are done, remove them to a serving dish. Take the skillet off the heat. Wait for a few moments until the sauce has completely stopped bubbling. Then pour over the carbocrema , and immediately whisk vigorously to create a creamy sauce.
• Pour the sauce over and around the chicken balls and sprinkle with the guanciale. Top if you like with more ground pepper and/or grated cheese.
• Serve immediately.

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