How to make vegetarian meatballs

There was some melanzane in the fridge and I was wondering what to do with it.

Melanzane means eggplants in Italian or as we Asians call it, brinjal. I would normally just slice and fry them to be eaten with sambal, or have it be made into Roasted Eggplant soup.

Roasted eggplant soup

I was reading a recipe on to make Polpette di Melanzane, and not too long ago I made Polpette Al Sugo, which is an Italian version of meatballs in tomato sauce, so I thought I’d give it a try with my own touch

First, take some melanzane, rinse and then slice them thinly. Some recipes want you to peel the skin but I left it on, on purpose as I think that it tastes just as good with the skin.

Next, arrange the slices and sprinkle salt on to them. Then repeat the step by adding another layer of the melanzane slices on top and sprinkle more salt till all the slices are gone.

Then put a plate on top of it and put something heavy to squash them. This is supposed to remove the eggplant juice which has a bitter taste. Then leave it be for some hours. And when you come back, indeed you’ll see liquid dripping out.

So at this time, boil some water in a pot. While waiting for the water to boil, rinse the melanzane slices thoroughly and then drop them in the boiling water. Let it to cook for a few minutes like less than 5 minutes. Dont let it get soggy.

Then drain the boiled melanzane slices. Get rid of as much of the liquid as possible. So I guess this is a great time to *ahem* fondle and squeeze them. After which, chop them up as finely as possible. Or dump them in the food processor.

This, by the way, is Pecorino cheese. Sheep cheese! It has a slightly stronger taste compared to cow cheese.

Grate some pecorino cheese and dump them in a bowl. Add a clove of mashed garlic, a couple of egg yolks, breadcrumbs, chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper to taste. Oh and not forgetting the chopped melanzane of course.

And then mix them all up nicely. If it feels too squishy, just add more breadcrumbs and leave it in the fridge to settle for a while 😀

By this time, your hand will smell like Parmigiana. Ooh! Another food that I like to eat!

In any case, then take a small bit of the mix and form a ball and roll it in your hand. Squash the middle as how you’d make begedil and then coat them with breadcrumbs

And then fry them in hot oil till its golden brown. I used olive oil, but other vegetable oils would be fine too. Anyway, this is what it looks like in the end!

It might look plain but trust me, its delicious! So much so that when Cart finished my freshly made batch, he turned into a zombie and bawled out, “Want MOARRRR!”

Uh oh

Sidenote : Feliza was asking that I have a link to all the food that I made. I do! Its right under the food fascination category