I grew up eating a pretty run-of-the-mill meatloaf. It was basically the family meatball mixture shaped into a log with ketchup on top. Imagine my amusement when I first encountered Italian-style meatloaf. It was 2003 and I was living with students from Abruzzo. They were absolutely lovely people but definitely the best thing about them was that their mothers would send packages of food to them on the train from Avezzano to Stazione Prenestina in Rome. God forbid they be distracted from studying by cooking! Mind you, these care packages boarded the train, oil-stained and fragrant, unattended. Abruzzese mothers from across the Marsica sub-region would stack boxes in the spaces between the cars for their daughters to collect at the end of the line. This was mind-boggling to my post-9/11 addled American mind. Yet I knew better than to raise any alarms. There were polpettoni at stake, I would learn.
Polpettone, or meatloaf in Italian terms, differs from place to place. But generally speaking, it is a large meatball stuffed with hard boiled eggs. There may be other fillings such as prosciutto, ham, mortadella, and/or provolone. My version below is a hybrid of my former roommates’ mothers versions and those I have had in Sicily. If you intend to send the polpettone on a solo train voyage, allow it to cool completely before wrapping and transporting.
Serves 6
½ stale country loaf torn into ¼ inch pieces or 1 cup of panko
¾ cup of whole milk
Sea salt
1 pound (500g) ground pork
1 pound (500g) ground veal
2 large eggs, beaten
½ cup of finely grated pecorino cheese or aged caciocavallo
1 bunch fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Whole nutmeg for grating
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
4 ounces (6 to 8 slices) prosciutto or cooked ham
5 hard-boiled eggs peeled
Preheat the oven to 350F (175C).
Place the stale bread in a medium bowl and pour over the milk. Set aside to allow the milk to be absorbed, about 20 minutes, then drain, squeezing out and discarding excess liquid.
Transfer the soaked bread to a large bowl. Add the pork, veal, eggs, caciocavallo, parsley, 5 gratings of nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Knead the mixture together by hand until combined.
Oil a medium casserole and line a work surface with a sheet of parchment paper. On the parchment, form the meat mixture into a rectangle measuring about 12 by 8 inches and about ¼ inch thick. Lay the prosciutto over the ground meat, leaving about 1 inch of one long edge uncovered. Slice off the short ends of the hard boiled eggs. Set the eggs over the prosciutto about 1 inch from the covered long edge of the rectangle, placing them so their trimmed ends are touching each other.
Using the parchment, roll the meat mixture around the filling, forming a long tube with the hard boiled eggs at the center. Pinch the seam closed along the long edge, then pinch the short ends closed.
Place the roll in the prepared casserole. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside to rest for 20 minutes before slicing and serving.
