A Neapolitan Classic

Michele and I went to IL Gattopardo for lunch recently.  One of my favorites there, the meatloaf, was not on the menu. I asked the waiter and he said he believed it would be back on soon. This is something that is not served in most restaurants in Naples but in people’s homes. So I asked Michele to make it for me.

First, we had a little antipasto of marinated roasted red peppers.  Here are the peppers ready to be cut

After roasting and peeling, Michele marinated them with thick slices of garlic, olive oil and oregano.  She leaves the garlic in large pieces so that it is easy to remove them.  We ate the peppers with anchovies.

To go with the meatloaf, Michele made sauteed zucchini and onions with cherry tomatoes.  She used canned cherry tomatoes.  The secret of this recipe is to cook it just to the point where the zucchini are still firm and not mushy.

The saucy vegetables were a nice complement to the meatloaf.

The meatloaf, called polpettone, is made mostly with beef, and some veal and pork ready mixed with chopped prosciutto, salami and cheese.  Here it is ready for the oven

The meatloaf out of the oven

On the plate, the meatloaf was moist and full of flavor, complemented by the sauteed zucchini.

The Wine

Montepulciano D’ Abruzzo 2003 Emidio Pepe100% Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. The winery is organic and Bio-Dynamic. They belong to the Triple “A” Agriculture Artisans Artists. Both the tendone method and the cordon spur method are used for training the vines. In vintages when the weather is very hot the tendone method is better because the leaves form a canopy to protect the grapes from the sun.  When the weather is not too hot, the cordon spur is better because it allows more sun and air to reach the grapes. One hectare of tendone has 900 vines and produces 90 quintals of grapes.  That means that each vine produces from 6 to 9 kilos of grapes. In one hectare of cordon spur trained grapes, there are 3,300 vines and each vine produces 5 to 6 kilos of grapes. The grapes are crushed by hand and the juice placed in glass-lined cement tanks of 20/25 liters. Only natural yeasts are used, there is no filtration or fining. The wine is transferred to the bottle by hand and the corks are placed in the bottles by hand. This is a very impressive wine  with deep red fruit aromas and flavors with hints of cherry, spice and leather.  It is still young and will last for many years.

For Dessert, we had a Roman style cheesecake.  The recipe is from Michele’s dessert book, La Dolce Vita.