One of the best-loved Dalmatian comfort-food dishes, for most Dalmatians bringing strong memories from childhood days with mom or granny, is polpete u toču. Dalmatia is the coastal part of Croatia, directly across Italy on the other side of the Adriatic sea. This is where this dish originally came from: its ‘parent-dish’ is the Italian polpette al sugo. The dishes are virtually identical, to the best of my knowledge, the only true difference is that in Italy you usually put some nutmeg in the meatballs and in Croatian Dalmatia you don’t. This is why I declared it both as Croatian and Italian. Still, due to myself beeing Croatian and knowing this dish ages before I learned it originally came from Italy, in the recipe listing I am sorting it as Croatian.

The polpet(t)e is particularly great in summer, when you can find tasty ripe tomatoes for the sauce, but of course you can make it with canned ones at other times of year. It is a bit of work, but no advanced cooking skills are necessary, and it’s really worth a try, particularly since it is equally as good reheated a day after it was made.

Suitable for: This is not halal (you might make it halal though, by using pure beef or beef/lamb mince), not kosher, not vegetarian, not glutene-free, not lactose-free, not egg-free. However, it contains no nuts or shellfish.

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⌚ Ca. 1.5-2 hours total

PDF-recipe for collecting and printing

Ingredients (serves 4) 🛒

2 + 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 big onion, 2 garlic cloves, 200 g breadcrumbs, ca. 75 ml milk, 2 eggs, 2 tsp sweet paprika powder, 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley, 40 g grated cheese (pecorino or parmesan-type), 1 tsp + salt, 1/2 tsp + pinch black pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 550 g doubly-minced meat (half pork, half beef), 200 ml tomato sauce (passata), ca. 400 g skinned diced tomatoes, 150 ml vegetable stock, 1 tsp oregano, a few whole basil leaves

How to 🍳

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Add onion, finely chopped, fry on medium heat occasionally stirring until golden (takes about 10 min).

Meanwhile moistrn breadcrumbs with milk. Add eggs, stir well. Add paprika, 1 tsp salt, parsley, cheese, 1/2 tsp black pepper, garlic powder and meat, knead well.

Put 1-2 tbsp of the fried onions on a plate to cool down. Add finely chopped garlic cloves to the pan with onions, fry a few minutes, then add tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock. Stir well, bring to a boil.

While waiting for the sauce to boil, add the cooled onions to the mewt mixture and make small meatballs (about 3 cm in diameter), roll in flour, arrange on a plate, cover with clingfilm and put into refrigerator for 30 min.

Reduce the heat for the sauce, add oregano and a little bit of salt and pepper to the sauce, let it simmer for about 45 min. In the last 5 min add a few whole basil leaves to it.

Take the meatballs out after 30 min in fridge, heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a wide deep pan, medium to high, but not very high heat. Add the meatballs. Fry 5 min uncovered and 5 min covered without turning, then uncover, turn, again fry 5 min uncovered and 5 min covered. Add sauce, reduce hest to simmer and cook for about 15-20 min more.

Serve with basic mashed potatoes and a nice salad. Dobar tek (Croatian for bon appetit) !