polepette di salsiccia con romanesco e patate dolci
Who doesn’t love a one-pan meal? Protein, vegetables, potato – all in one beautiful, colorful pan of Italian ingredients and flavors. This sheet-pan sausage meatballs with romanesco and sweet potato recipe checks all those boxes.
I love meatballs. I even love meatless meatballs. In Italy, polpette can be made out of vegetables, beans, or spinach and ricotta. Also, of course you have the classic beef meatball. But in this recipe, they are made with sausage, so you get that salty, smoky flavor that contrasts beautifully with the sweet potato.
It doesn’t get much easier than a sheet-pan dinner. All that’s required is chopping up vegetables, adding a protein, and letting the oven do the roasting. Sometimes there is a marinade involved or lots of spices and seasonings, but in this sheet-pan sausage meatballs with romanesco and sweet potato, we’re letting the ingredients shine, with just a little help from good quality extra virgin olive oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and fresh rosemary. The perfect Italian weeknight dinner!
The meatball mixture is made similarly to any classic meatball. Take the raw pork sausage out of the casing and break it up into a bowl. I like to use unseasoned and add my own herbs and flavorings. Sometimes the grocery store also sells ground sausage already out of the casing, which would also work for this meatball recipe.
The secret to great meatballs is the soggy paste made up of pieces of stale bread soaked in milk. A good rule of thumb is about 2 parts bread to 1 part milk, but if you find your mixture seems too wet even after the bread has absorbed the milk, simply give it a good squeeze to remove some excess moisture before adding it to the meat.
I also add grated parmigiano reggiano cheese, some chopped parsley, salt and freshly ground black pepper to the sausage mixture. I portion them into large tablespoon sized balls, but you could definitely make them smaller for more bite size portions. The meatballs are then rolled in breadcrumbs to give them extra crunch when they’re baked.
The vegetable that is the star of this sheet pan is the romanesco. It is in the same family as broccoli and cauliflower, and is actually sometimes called Roman Cauliflower. It has a slightly firmer texture than these two cousins, which helps it stand up well to a long roast in the oven. It has a taste in between the two but a bit more rich and nutty. These are all in the Brassica oleracea family which also includes kale, brussel sprouts, and collard greens.
What’s most remarkable about romanesco is its chartreuse color and beautifully intricate geometric patterns formed on the buds. They literally stop me in my tracks every time I see them. I can’t believe these fractal marvels can exist naturally in our vegetal world. I attempted to read the technical mathematical explanations for this but they went way over my head so I will not attempt to recount that information. But I did find some other interesting examples of these patterns that exist in nature.
Romanesco can be eaten and served the same ways as broccoli or cauliflower – raw or blanched, roasted or sautéed. It can be then added to salads, casseroles, or pasta.
Similarly to when I cut broccoli or cauliflower, I like to work from the core outwards. If you just slice the whole head right in half, then you’ve damaged all those pretty florets and have all those little crumbs scattered on the cutting board as punishment. I take the knife and cut around the core in a circle to pry it out from the rest of the head. I then carefully break the florets apart from each other and just use the knife at the base of each stem to separate the buds. Especially when they are as beautiful as they are in romanesco, I like to leave as many of the buds whole when they are small, or the big ones I cut in half.
The other choice vegetable in this recipe is the sweet potato. Of course, any type of potato can be used, but I love the contrast of sweet with the smoky and salty of the sausage meatballs. Also I’m a sucker for a beautiful color palette, and the orange sweet potato with the green of the romanesco is simply perfection!
I cube the sweet potato into chunks about the same size as the pieces of romanesco, so they roast at the same rate.
I place them all on my large rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper. I then toss them in about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
Putting them in the oven to roast for about 10-15 minutes on their own, they will get a head start without the meatballs. I take them out and give the vegetables a good toss.
I then add the meatballs to the pan, nestling them on top of the vegetables.
At this stage I’m also adding another one of my favorite Italian ingredients, artichoke hearts. I love to keep jarred artichoke hearts on hand and roasting them just enhances and deepens their flavor. So I scatter the pieces of artichokes on top of the vegetables along with some fresh rosemary leaves. Putting the pan back in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, all I have to do is wait, set the table, and most importantly, open a bottle of wine.
I’m looking for the meatballs to be cooked through and nice and golden brown on top, helped along by the breadcrumbs they were rolled in. The vegetables will have also taken on some slight char around the edges and the artichoke hearts will be a bit crispy.
If you love this technique of roasting artichoke hearts as much as I do, try them in a radicchio, roasted artichoke, and mozzarella salad!
Of course, there are many variations to this sheet-pan sausage meatballs with romanesco and sweet potato recipe. Cauliflower or broccoli can be used instead of romanesco. Other potato varieties can be used in place of the sweet potato. Wedges of white or red onion can be roasted along with the vegetables as well as slices of red or yellow bell pepper would be a fun addition.
Sheet-Pan Sausage Meatballs with Romanesco and Sweet Potato Recipe
Sheet-Pan Sausage Meatballs with Romanesco and Sweet Potato
Course: Secondi Piatti4
servings20
minutes45
minutesIngredients
40g breadcrumbs
100g stale bread, roughly chopped
50ml milk
300g raw pork sausage links, or ground sausage
50g parmigiano reggiano, grated
1 Tbsp fresh parlsey leaves, finely chopped
2 large sweet potatoes (500-700g), peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
1 head romanesco, cut into florets, keeping smaller ones whole and larger ones cut in half – pieces should be the same size as the sweet potato cubes
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
140g jarred artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves roughly chopped
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Preheat oven to 200 °C. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
- Place breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl or plate.
- In a separate bowl, toss bread pieces in milk, ensuring they are fully saturated and let sit for 10 minutes. If after soaking, mixture seems too wet (bread has not fully absorbed milk) gently squeeze the bread to drain of excess milk before adding to meatball mixture.
- While bread soaks, remove sausage meat from casings and place in a large bowl. Add grated parmigiano reggiano, parsley, ¼ tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add soaked bread when it is finished soaking and mix gently with your hands until just combined.
- Scoop out 1 tablespoon size portions of meat and roll between your palms to form into balls. Roll each meatball in the breadcrumbs and place on a large plate. Continue with remainder of meat. You should get about 14 meatballs.
- Add sweet potato and romanesco pieces to prepared baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables and sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper. Toss to coat.
- Roast for 10-15 minutes, until vegetables are just starting to soften and turning light brown around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and toss the vegetables, flipping them around a bit with a spatula.
- Add the meatballs to the pan, placing them evenly spaced on top of the vegetables. Scatter the pieces of artichoke hearts around the meatballs and sprinkle with rosemary leaves.
- Return to the oven and continue to roast for 25-30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through and golden brown, and the vegetables are slightly charred on the edges.
- Serve warm from the oven.
More recipes
Radicchio, Roasted Artichoke, and Mozzarella Salad
Roasted Fennel with Parmigiano Reggiano Breadcrumbs
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