My Second Ever Substack!

And we're back with more

Hello all,

Hope you’ve been enjoying the start of spring. This is my favourite time of year, it’s always felt like a particularly special season where, in nature, life changes hands and we see renewal.

These are exciting times! As I’m writing this I’m taking breaks from packing for a trip to France, where I’ll be recording a very secret project with some very special people. This is one of the most creatively fulfilling and exciting things I’ve been involved in in a long while, but more about that at a different time.

I hope you enjoyed the first playlist I made a couple of weeks ago, here’s another one! It’s been a pretty special time for me with music since we last spoke. Firstly, one of my heroes dropped a new banger, Bon Iver’s Sable, Fable. Secondly, and I’m insanely late to the party on this one, but my latest fixation has been on Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal. Cameron’s writing toes the line perfectly between devastatingly sad, bizarrely hilarious and hauntingly beautiful. Produced masterfully by Loren Humphrey, this is pretty unlike anything I’ve heard before.

Lastly, this week gave us a truly truly special album, from another one of my real heroes, Adrianne Lenker’s Live at Revolution Hall. Never before have I heard a ‘live’ album feel like such a complete, fresh piece of work. ‘Live’ marked there because it truly is so much more than just a concert recording. Lenker’s own philosophy is that a recording is a capture of a moment that has only and will only exist that one time it was captured, performing the same song is not a repetition of that moment, but simply a new moment that will only exist that one time. My friend Sean Rogan put perfectly that this album is living proof of the idea that performance will always be more important than quality of recording. People of my Substack, please do not miss out on this one.

Here’s the playlist:

ALSO ! I come to this Substack bearing a recipe. It was daunting deciding what dish to open with. Although I think I’d like to start with one of my all-time favourites. With this Italian heritage of mine, yesterday (the 25th of April) was a special day: Italian Liberation Day, to mark the country being liberated from the Fascist rule in the 1940s. It feels a strange time in history to celebrate something like that, or maybe it’s a time where we should be remembering and celebrating these things even more. ANYWAY, this is Polpette al Sugo.

Yes, meatballs. Yes, without spaghetti.

This is a dish that I grew up with, my grandmother used to make this for me since I was tiny, and she still does! This is my personal recipe for some meatballs. However, meatballs are something that I can’t really give measurements for, it always changes depending on what I have, but let this be a guideline! These are a special comfort food for me so I like to pull out all the stops. For my vegetarian and vegan friends out there, just replace with your favourite alternatives!

Ok so the fundamentals:

• Meat

• Eggs

• Bread AND breadcrumbs

• Milk

• Cheese

• Seasonings

My general rule of thumb with my meatball mix is 50/50 meat to everything else (before mixing).

I always go for a mixed-meat situation: A nice medium-fatty minced beef, a few peeled sausages, and some cured meats (mortadella is the best, but any will do… probably not salami though) diced very very finely. Honestly use any meat you want. Throw these in the bowl!

Soak the crumb of your bread (the inside of your old bread, no crust!) in some milk for a little bit, then strain and add to your mix. Also add your breadcrumbs! These will help hold it all together, make more meatballs, and they also help retain some of that fat (flavour, people) in your balls!

Throw in an egg or two to act as a binder.

I like to grate a mix of parmesan and pecorino for that mix of flavour. Any pecorino should do nicely, if you want to be extra I love the sharp tanginess of Pecorino Sardo!

Herbs are your friend, and be heavy with the parsley. Do not, however, go overboard with the basil and oregano. Literally any herbs will be nice in meatballs.

Grate some garlic in there, why don’t you. Onion-wise, do whatever you like. Onion powder is fine, fresh chopped or grated onion is all good, my personal favourite, if you have the time or energy, is some diced up caramelised onion in there.

Further seasonings: Some salt (but remember your cheese is salty too), black pepper, also white pepper if you have some! A little paprika (not smoked) goes a long way, and a little dusting of nutmeg! And okay, I will let you in on my secret ingredient: a bit of mustard. I’m truly a freak for mustard, and I would put it in anything, but trust me it’s really good here. Not English or American mustard, though.

Give it a nice drizzle of olive oil and mix that baby up nice and good, with your hands!!

Prepare a board for your balls, scoop up the amount you want to make your preferred size, and start shaping them up! I like to try and throw each one back and forth between my two hands for a bit, to try and get some of the air out, and then rolling firmly into meatball shapes. This can take a while, and you may end up with more meatballs than you wanted, but more meatballs is always a good thing!

Now get some olive oil in a pan on some medium heat, and get your meatballs sizzling. We do not want these to get TOO brown, or form too much of a crust, just to gently cook, seal and firm up the outside so they don’t fall apart later. Don’t overcrowd your pan, do this in batches if you need.

After this step, empty the pan - it’s sauce time. Get some fresh olive oil in that pan, once again medium heat. Peel a couple cloves of garlic and give them a bump with your knife held flat, so they crush slightly, and whack them in there. Let the garlic bloom a bit in the pan - do NOT let it burn or even brown. Add in your favourite tomato friend - I like Mutti, either passata, polpa or pelati.

Season your sauce with salt and pepper, hell maybe even a little sugar. Please don’t put herbs (like basil & oregano) in your sauce. You’re better than that.

Turn the heat up until it starts to bubble, at which stage add your meatballs back in. Let it get to the bubble again, and turn to medium-high heat for about 15 mins, then down to low.

Honestly, you could let these bad boys cook slowly in there for hours, This is up to you. Just make sure that right before you serve up, give your Polpette a nice healthy glug of a good quality olive oil. Mix, and then serve.

Plate this up by itself, with greens, or like I have here, with some rosemary potatoes (and yes that’s dipping pesto for the potatoes because I’m an indulgent bastard).

Feel free to send me a message, or leave a comment below if you’ve tried this, or have any good tips for Polpette al Sugo!

And never be a stranger, let me know if there’s anything else you want to hear or see in this Substack, I’m learning on the job!

All my love,

Luca