crushed canned tomato

Featured in my cookbook, “Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories from the Tables of Immigrant Women” (Harper Design, 2019), this polpette recipe comes from my grandmother’s Calabrian kitchen. The sugo di pomodoro, or tomato sauce, delivers complex flavor, serving as the poaching liquid for the delicate meatballs and as an essential ingredient in the meatballs themselves, adding both flavor and juiciness. Lightened further with milk and Italian bread crumbs, the meatballs are incredibly tender, bursting at the touch of your fork. The recipe yields a crowd-serving portion, perfect for Sunday dinner, but also freezes beautifully. Though the sauce may be tossed with your favorite pasta, this dish is the ideal version of a traditional platter of meatballs, covered in sauce and garnished with cheese and basil.

Calabrian Meatballs

basil leaves

olive oil

garlic cloves,

red-pepper flakes (optional)

(28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes (8 cups)

tomato paste

kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)

black pepper

pork

veal

beef (preferably 15-percent fat)

Pecorino Romano cheese,

bread crumbs

milk

tomato sauce (reserved

eggs,

parsley leaves (optional)

Prepare the sauce: Tear 5 basil leaves in half; reserve the rest. Combine the torn basil, olive oil, garlic and red-pepper flakes (if using), in a small saucepan over very low heat for 10 minutes, allowing the basil and garlic to steep in the oil. (Do not let the garlic get beyond medium brown in color.) Remove from the heat, strain the oil, discard the solids and set aside.

In a large pot, combine the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper with 2 cups water and the infused oil. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then immediately reduce to a simmer. Remove ½ cup of the sauce for the meatballs, setting aside to cool. 

Partially cover the pot and simmer the sauce, undisturbed, while you prepare the meatballs.

In a large bowl, hand mix all the meatball ingredients (including the reserved ½ cup sauce) until combined. (The mixture will be quite soft.) Wet your hands and pinch off approximately ¼-cup portions and roll them into balls between your palms. (They should each be about 2 ¼-inches wide.) Place each meatball on a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining mixture, making about 16 meatballs.

Once all the meatballs have been rolled, carefully drop them into the simmering sauce. If the pot seems too full, shimmy the pot back and forth gently to make more room to simmer the meatballs in an even layer. Do not stir, as the meatballs will break apart.

Cover the pot partially with a lid and gently simmer the meatballs in the sauce for 1 hour (or up to 2 hours) until they are firm and cooked through. Carefully remove the meatballs to a plate, adding spoonfuls of sauce, or transfer the meatballs and sauce to a shallow serving bowl. Chop the remaining basil and sprinkle on top, and garnish with more grated Pecorino.

This recipe is quintessential cucina povera, which roughly translates as ‘frugal cuisine of the poor’ in Italian, and it originated in Calabria. Its simple deliciousness comes from a handful of ingredients. In mountainous Calabria, where cows cannot roam free, goat’s-milk ricotta would typically be used, but recipes evolve over time and space, and cow’s-milk ricotta is commonly used in North America. Most translate the Italian word ‘polpetta’ as meatball, but in Italy, it is any mixture of ingredients rolled into a ball and cooked. This meatless variation’s base of ricotta is mixed with egg and bread crumbs, then rolled, poached in tomato sauce until fork-tender, and finally sprinkled with cheese. They make a perfect side to a first course of pasta or can be served on their own, with crusty bread, for sopping up the sauce.

Ricotta Polpette in Tomato Sauce

(28-ounce) cans/about 8 cups crushed tomatoes

(32-ounce) container/about 4 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese (see Tip)

eggs

parsley,

kosher salt (such as Diamond Kosher)

Prepare the sauce: Tear 5 basil leaves in half; reserve the rest. Combine the torn basil, olive oil, garlic and red-pepper flakes (if using) in a small saucepan and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes, allowing the basil and garlic to steep in the oil. (Do not let the garlic get beyond medium brown in color.) Remove from the heat, strain the oil, discard the solids and set the infused oil aside.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, combine the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper with 2 cups water and the infused oil. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then immediately reduce to a simmer.  

Partially cover the pot and simmer the sauce over medium-low heat, undisturbed, while you prepare the ricotta polpette.

In a large bowl, use a spatula to mix all the polpette ingredients until combined. (The mixture will be quite soft.) Wet your hands and pinch off approximately 2-tablespoon portions and roll them into balls between your palms. (They should each be about 2 inches wide and weigh about 40 grams.) Place each polpette on a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining mixture, making about 35 small balls.

Once all the polpette have been rolled, bring the sauce to a boil and carefully drop them into the sauce. Shimmy the pot back and forth gently, after each addition, to make room and to prevent the polpette from sticking to the bottom of the pot or to each other. Do not stir, as the balls will break apart.

Cover the pot with a lid and leave the polpette in the sauce, undisturbed, for 4 minutes. Remove the lid and shimmy the pot again. They will have begun to firm up. Cover the pot again and cook for another 10 minutes, until they are firm, plump and cooked through.

Carefully remove the polpette to a plate, topping them with spoonfuls of sauce, or transfer the polpette and sauce to a shallow serving bowl. Chop the remaining basil and sprinkle on top, and garnish with more grated cheese. 

Arrabbiata literally translates to “angry” in Italian. Don’t worry, the goal of this angry chicken is to make you just the opposite. Sugo all'arrabbiata is traditionally a simple, spicy tomato sauce that gets its heat and flavor from spicy chile peppers: dried, fresh or both. This recipe uses both crushed red pepper and chopped Calabrian chiles or hot cherry peppers — along with olive oil, shallot, tomatoes and garlic — to make sauce for crispy chicken thighs to lay in as they are roasted to perfection. Additional hot peppers or fresh tomatoes are more than welcome. While there’s plenty of sauce to serve traditionally over pasta, this arrabbiata is happiest over creamy polenta.

Angry Chicken

bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

Salt and black pepper

shallot

red pepper

jarred Calabrian chiles or hot cherry peppers

tomatoes

Polenta,

NYT Cooking

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/10/30/multimedia/DP-Chicken-alla-Arrabiata-Angry-Chicken-cwjz/DP-Chicken-alla-Arrabiata-Angry-Chicken-cwjz-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg

Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/10/30/multimedia/DP-Chicken-alla-Arrabiata-Angry-Chicken-cwjz/DP-Chicken-alla-Arrabiata-Angry-Chicken-cwjz-googleFourByThree.jpg

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/10/30/multimedia/DP-Chicken-alla-Arrabiata-Angry-Chicken-cwjz/DP-Chicken-alla-Arrabiata-Angry-Chicken-cwjz-mediumSquareAt3X.jpg

Chicken all’Arrabbiata

On a plate, pat chicken thighs with a paper towel until the skin is dry, then sprinkle generously with salt and pepper all over. Set an oven-proof skillet or pan over medium heat and add olive oil. When oil is hot, add chicken thighs skin-side down and cook, untouched, for 9 minutes. When the skin is crisped and releases from the pan, return thighs to the same plate and set aside. (The chicken will not be cooked through at this point.)

Add shallot, garlic, crushed red pepper, chopped chiles and a pinch of salt to the pan. Cook until the shallot is softened and the garlic is fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add tomato paste, stirring until the paste darkens, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, their juices and a big pinch each of salt and pepper and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits, for about 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat. Tuck the chicken thighs into the pan, skin-side up, ensuring they are covered in tomato sauce.  Bake in the oven until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning and spice level as necessary. Serve warm, over polenta, and garnish with fresh parsley.

1/4 C of Calabrian peppers would render this dish inedible. We used 3 lbs of thighs (two pkgs) and two fully red jalapenos from the garden. The birds were still plenty angry, but not enough to send anyone running for a glass of milk. Served with garlic green beans and cheesy polenta. Delicious!

The chicken could've been cooked a bit longer (I'll call that a personal failure and not a recipe failure). The sauce is a keeper, though.

I cooked this exactly as written and it turned out perfectly. And even though I covered the skin with the sauce before cooking in the oven, it still had the flavor from cooking in the pan first, though I will try without submerging it next time.

Delicious! Save the sauce, make shakshouka for breakfast the next morning with leftovers. Sauce, eggs, feta (and cilantro if possible). Serve with toasted bread- yum!

Additional note: mess aside, the flavors were great, and do not skip the polenta. It tempers the spiciness of the dish. If you still find it too hot, a glut of vinegar (white wine for instance) will take it down a notch while adding a little brightness.

While the flavors of this dish are great (and yes, have some heat), I found the preparation unacceptably messy. Adding the shallots, garlic, Calabrian chiles, etc., to a very hot pan created an extraordinary amount of spatter in the 2’ radius of my burner.

This recipe is fabulous. I made it as written with two tweaks: I used bone-in skinless thighs to cut out some fat, and I sprinkled the zest of a lemon over the dish before serving, long with the parsley. I used the full 1/4 cup of Calabrian chiles and the red pepper flakes and thought the spice level was perfect. I made sure to taste my chiles before committing to 1/4 cup since the heat levels vary by brand. I also used a high-quality can of fire roasted tomatoes and highly recommend.

Agree that chicken should not be covered with sauce,

Delicious! Why exercise to work up a sweat when you can just eat this dish. Sauce was spicy perfection. May sauté some kielbasa instead of chicken to make it quicker. Great with spaghetti, maybe even better with polenta? Can't wait to riff on this recipe.

This was easy enough to make, and I didn't think it was too hot (I made as written).  That said, it didn't blow me away. I agree with some reviewers that it needs salt, but even after adding salt and some generous Parmasean cheese, it still tasted more like heat than flavor.

Did a rerun of this great, easy recipe, again with boneless, skinless breasts. 4 Calabrian chilis was enough for flavor and heat without going overboard. Added dried Sicilian oregano off the stem... excellent. Best way to test for doneness is with an instant read digital thermometer. Also have purchased a much needed splatter guard for frying. Love this dish and look forward to serving to guests.

The recipe states to put the half cooked chicken back onto the same plate the raw chicken was on.  This is dangerous as the raw chicken coud have had salmonella or other types of viruses/bacteria which would re-infect the half cooked chicken  I warn all to use a different plate. Just sayin'

This recipe works for those who prefer skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Pan-sauteed the breasts in olive oil at medium for five minutes per side (no flour, just salt/pepper), then proceeded with the directions as written (heeding the recommendations from the majority of commenters  to reduce the Calabrian peppers (to 1 tablespoon) and skip the pepper flakes.  When putting the chicken back in the sauce, I did cut it into chunks.  Served it over the recommended polenta, molto delicioso.

Definitely not too much spice in my household’s opinion. Made exactly as recipe said. Will double the peppers next time. Agree with other commenters about not covering the crispy skin with sauce, though!

I think the part about tucking the chicken thighs, "ensuring they are covered in tomato sauce" is wrong. That takes the crispy skin and makes it mushy, which defeats the whole point of skin-on chicken thighs. I think it should say, "immerse the chicken into the sauce as much as possible without getting sauce on the skin".

Good recipe but 1/4 cup of Calabrian chili peppers is insane.   That’s 4 tablespoons of some serious heat.    One tablespoon will bring a tear to your eye.   Two is about all I’d use.     Four is bordering on the absurd.

Step 4 instructs: "Tuck the chicken thighs into the pan, skin-side up, ensuring they are covered in tomato sauce"  The accompanying photo show thighs sitting in the tomato sauce, but not covered by it, with skin largely exposed.

Though food stylists understandably want to give dishes their best look, such an obvious disparity between the instructions and photo is confusing to cooks - not to mention that the texture of chicken baked with exposed skin will will differ from that covered in sauce.

MOTHER OF GOD.  This was SO SPICY.  My husband and I like spicy things and this just about killed us.  We didn't even use the chili flakes; only the Calabrian peppers.  He had sweat dripping down his temples and I could not eat more than two bites because my tongue hurt so much. Do you know the children's book Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin?  It was like a reenactment of that, with the two of us as the fire breathing dragons.

In recipes like this one, I’d suggest to the writer to include a spicing suggestion for the hot peppers, such as a direction for amounts of peppers, such as: 
1/4 cup = intense heat 
2 peppers = medium heat, 
1 tsp. = mild, for beginner palettes, 
— or something similar to that purpose.

Made this a few days ago. It was excellent. We had 3 lbs. of chicken, so cooked it for 30 minutes with the chicken skin exposed. 

For breakfast, we had some sauce left over, which we warmed in a skillet, made some dimples for eggs, covered and simmered for about 6 minutes, and served over toast or some left-over polenta. Yum!

With our dish, we tucked the chicken in the sauce, but only lightly covered the skin-side with sauce. We were also concerned that the crispiness of the skin would be overwhelmed by the sauce, but it turned out to not be the case. I would say that not drowning the chicken in the sauce is the secret to making this a terrific chicken dish.

@CFXK - I think it would be difficult to cover the thighs in a wide pan with only 1 28 oz can of tomatoes. I often finish thighs/breasts in the oven when they sit atop a sauce. If we were braising, that’s one thing, but this one shouldn’t be a problem.

I made this last night and it is excellent but definitely spicy. I will dial back the spice the next time I make it probably starting with the pepper flakes. Also, it definitely needed salt when it came out of the oven.

I followed the recipe except we had 6 thighs that weighed 3 lbs. The 28 oz. of crushed tomatoes was just right. I went heavy on the garlic, and cooked in the oven for 25 minutes. The skin stayed above the sauce and was crispy. For the polenta, we used a tube of Ancient Harvest, slightly diluted with vegetable stock. It was delicious.

I agree with Mark that 1/4 cup Calabrian Chile is insane.  I eliminated the red peppers flakes and used 1.5 tbl of Chiles.  For me, it was good.  But my husband, who has way less tolerance for heat than me, still thought it was way too hot.  I cook with Calabrian Chiles often (thank you, Bobby Flay).  They pack serious heat.  A little goes a long way.

The next morning after eating this my colon rebelled.  Ease up on the chilies for the love of your intestines.

@Mark
I wish I had read your post before I made this dish! You are so right that it is extremely spicy.

Delicious.

Calabrian chiles—all chiles—can vary in heat. Same with crushed red pepper.

Taste your ingredients. Exercise judgment.

I used a full 1/4 cup of the chiles I had and omitted the crushed red—perfect (for my palate).

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