Ricotta Polpette in Tomato Sauce Recipe (2024)

these are not freezer friendly.

Delicious meat-free dish. We made yesterday, totally enjoyed, and highly recommend. An excellent budget stretcher!! A+!!

Nope, they predictably melted into little pucks and the salt concentrated. Don't do it, folks!

I’ve been making these for years, my Sicilian mother in law taught me. However, we FRY the the little dumplings just like our meatballs. Once fried I also freeze the extra on a sheet pan then toss in a freezer bag for the future.

A word to the wise: Do NOT just toss these ricotta balls into the sauce. They will disintegrate. I doubled up on the bread crumbs and cheese which firmed them up, but they still don't hold up well in the sauce. Fry the balls well as you would regular meatballs. But still do NOT put them into the sauce. Rather, pour the sauce over the fried balls. I added oregano and basil as well to the ricotta mix. Done this way, they are delicious!

I have no doubt the original recipe is awesome and would one day like to try it. With a toddler in the “no vegetable” phase, everything in this gets hidden vegetables. In case anyone is looking, this worked well for the polpette (half recipe): 15 oz ricotta, squeezed with cheesecloth 1 small head of cauliflower, steamed and squeezed (about 2/3 cup after squeezing) 1 tbsp flax seed meal 1 egg1 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup grated parm / pecorino 1/4 cup panko1 tbsp herbs

I followed the recipe almost to the letter but substituted panko bread crumbs for the seasoned Italian ones and I used hand-dipped ricotta, so I followed the note and reduced the bread crumbs. Great recipe. My family enjoyed the dumplings which were light and fluffy like little clouds. Infusing the oil with the garlic and basil and red pepper flakes was a bit of a faff, as the Brits say. I think next time I will just sauté them in the sauce.

Ricotta is crazy expensive in most markets but easy to make your own: Ingredients:1/2 gallon whole milk, not UHT pasteurized 1/3 cup lemon juice (from 1 1/2 to 2 lemons), or 1/3 cup distilled white vinegar, or 1/2 teaspoon citric acid 1 teaspoon salt, optionalLots of recipes online

It sounds delicious and I am going to try it, but where I live a pint of whole milk ricotta costs about the same as a pound of ground beef.

To the reader who asked about baking them, I did some of them that way because I had too much dough for my sauce to support. I flattened about 3 T of dough in my hand forming them into disks and baked for 15 minutes on parchment paper line sheet pan. I turned half way so they browned a little on both sides. Tastes fine even cold and dipped into a sauce, either tomato or pesto.

Really good recipe … I would recommend baking the balls; it is more more crunchy. Other note is that this recipe has way way way too much salt. I halved what the recipe called for and it was plenty enough. Unless you’re interested in dying of high blood pressure.

I wonder if these can be baked instead of poached in the sauce? Would like to use them with a pesto sauce.

Very good vegetarian dinner. I chilled thé prepared balls in the fridge for a few hours before cooking them in the sauce.

Has anyone switched out the Ricotta for Tofu (with nutritional yeast)?

This is not ricotta. While delicious, it is curdled milk. Ricotta is made by cooking (ri-cotta) the whey left over from cheese-making and concentrating the residual proteins. But don't apologize--it's a common mistake in the United States.

Highly recommend these, but with the 20 mins baking at 400 (and turning a couple times) before pouring over/tossing in the sauce (as others have recommended). I also accidentally added more pecorino than the recipe (almost double) and they were delicious. Half a recipe served a family of 4 with a side of fettuccini and salad. Kept well the next day.

My whole family loved this (the non-vegetarians preferred these over the meat-based ones). Definitely recommend the 20 mins baking on parchment at 400 (as others have suggested), turning a couple times to get a golden finish. I poured over the sauce rather than simmering. Added accidentally more pecorino than called for (almost double) and it was delicious. Also I halved the recipe and it would easily serve the 4 in my house, served with a simple fettuccine. Fantastic next day too.

I made this recipe to the letter. It’s an easy, slow Sunday project. It makes a lot, and I live alone, so this’ll get me through the week. The salt is a lil heavy; I’d probably cut it to 2tsps in the sauce and 2tsps in the polpette next time. Otherwise, I didn’t have problems pulling this together. The polpette are a little denser than expected, but it’s a filling, simple dish for a snowy day.

Added equal amounts of crumbs and ricotta, chilled them for an hour, they stayed together perfectly. I also did not strain out the basil/garlic/chile from the oil, just added it all in to the tomatoes. It was very good.

Followed the recipe has written with the exception of a similar idea from another writer and used Panko breadcrumbs instead. No issue at all with them staying together when I placed them very gently into the sauce. A definite keeper, but I should’ve paid attention to the fact that this is a massive recipe and now I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with all these extra cheeseballs… Lol.

I looooove theseeeee. I half the recipe for 2 and serve on top of pasta (still with lots of leftovers). And I fry them before simmering. They're amazing.

I looooveeee theseeeee. I half the recipe for 2 and serve on pasta (still with plenty of leftovers!). I also fry them before simmering and they keep their shape perfectly. They're amazing.

These are delicious. Added fresh thyme and oregano on top of parsley. Recommend to stick standard bread crumbs for more hom*ogenous texture. Baked at 410 for 20mn, turning them halfway. Puffed and crisped up. Poached in sauce afterwards, no issue on breakage. Will repeat.

Getting good ricotta is key here. I have the impression that a lot of the users are getting mixed results from getting the discount version commonly used in American lasagne. We used Bella Casara brand and everything went perfect, not too salty and plenty firm.

Great recipe, will make again. But quantities are wrong. I made the whole amount of sauce and half the ricotta (500g) with 1/4 cp peoruno, 1cup of crumbs (added salt pepper and herbs for seasoning - basil marjoram oregano sage rosemary thyme) and 2 eggs.The poleptte came together easily and cooked perfectly without coming apart (I used a big wooden spoon to move things in the pot, not really stirring, it was fine).I rolled 20 polpette, only half fit in the pot. I baked the rest 20 min 200°C.

Did anyone else find the salt excessive?! I used Kite Hill ricotta because I had a guest who couldn’t eat dairy, so that could be a factor, but really? A tablespoon in the sauce AND a tablespoon in the polpette?

I tried both frying and poaching, and increasing the breadcrumbs, but these polpettes really don't have much structural integrity. (Also skipped the sauce steps and used jarred sauce). I served them with medium shells and they taste like deconstructed stuffed shells, which is pretty good, but not an amazing dish.

These were great! Fed five with lots of leftovers. I did let the balls firm up in the fridge, and then rolled them in a breadcrumb/cheese/oil mix before baking them for 20min at 400F to get them extra crispy. No issues w/ breakage in the sauceDidn’t bother infusing the oil separately and straining. Added some healthy splashes of red wine and let the sauce reduce over 1.5 hrs to get to my preferred consistency. Next time I’ll probably add another can of tomatoes (or halve the ricotta mixture).

The cheeseballs were much tougher than I was expecting when reading through a lot of these comments. The breadcrumbs made them really firm but not in a good way. Could reduce the breadcrumbs (or find a way to leave them out completely)I added lemon zest and basil to the ricotta which helped with flavour but texture… no.

This recipe makes a TON of polpettes, so either make a lot, or roll 'em big.