Lamb Meatballs with Bagnetto Verde

by Julia Busuttil Nishimura, featured in Good Cooking Every Day

Published by Plum, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia

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Introduction

Bagnetto verde is a green sauce from Piemonte in northern Italy. It’s punchy, vibrant and a wonderful accompaniment to these lamb meatballs, which are simply flavoured with parsley, cheese and nutmeg. They are very much inspired by the polpette di Teresa from one of my favourite lunch spots in Rome – Trattoria da Cesare. On a recent trip, I ate them with a simple salad of puntarelle dressed with garlic and anchovies. A heavenly memory.

As featured in

Good Cooking Every Day

Image of Julia Busuttil Nishimura's Lamb Meatballs — Photo by Armelle Habib

Ingredients

Serves: 4

60 grams stale bread (crusts removed)
80 millilitres full fat milk
750 grams minced lamb
2 cloves of garlic (finely grated)
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
40 grams parmigiano reggiano cheese (finely grated, plus extra to serve)
30 grams Pecorino Romano (finely grated)
large handful parsley leaves (finely chopped)
1 egg (lightly whisked)
sea salt and black pepper

BAGNETTO VERDE

1 clove of garlic (peeled)
sea salt
60 grams parsley leaves (from about 1 ½ bunches)
4 anchovy fillets in olive oil (drained)
1 hard-boiled egg yolk
50 grams fresh breadcrumbs
80 millilitres white wine vinegar
200 millilitres extra virgin olive oil (plus extra for frying)
black pepper

Method

Lamb Meatballs with Bagnetto Verde is a guest recipe by Julia Busuttil Nishimura so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

Place the bread in a small bowl and cover with the milk. Allow to soak for 10–15 minutes. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread, then crumble it into a large bowl. Add the mince, garlic, nutmeg, cheeses, parsley and egg. Season with salt and pepper and mix with your hands until well combined. Roll into golf ball–sized balls and place on a tray. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, for the bagnetto verde, pound the garlic with a pinch of salt using a mortar and pestle. Add the herbs and continue pounding. Finally, add the anchovies and egg yolk and pound until you have a fairly homogeneous paste. Stir in the breadcrumbs, vinegar and olive oil. Season to taste and set aside. Alternatively, blitz the garlic, herbs, anchovies and egg yolk in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the breadcrumbs, season with salt and pepper and, with the motor running, add the vinegar and olive oil.
Warm a few tablespoons of extra olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the meatballs and pan-fry, turning them often to ensure they brown on all sides, for 4–5 minutes or until cooked. Serve the meatballs with a grating of extra Parmigiano Reggiano and the bagnetto verde.