Giada De Laurentiis Eats Pistachio Mortadella Meatballs | Bobby and Giada in Italy | Food Network

These little, rich, decadent polpettine, which just means little meatballs, are in a class all on their own. My mom introduced me to Di La. She just lives about two minutes around the corner from here. And I've had these meatballs, I have fallen in love with them, and I have tried to create a recipe, which didn't quite work quite as well. So I'm super excited to learn how to make them. Ciao, Francesco. Ciao. Come stai? Tutto bene. Allora, facciamo un po' di polpettine? So tell me a little bit about the meatballs. So it's typical Roman meatball. But this recipe is a secret original recipe, the grama. So you make the base flavor, which is onions, carrots, and celery. Yeah, mortadella. Well, they're mortadella meatballs, right? So we gotta have a lot of mortadella. Yeah, it's the important ingredients for this recipe. Smell this thick piece of mortadella. Yeah, with pistachio inside. That's the best part about it, the pistachios inside. Slice very, very fine. Mortadella is a cured pork sausage that has giant chunks of fat in it. Sometimes also pistachios and black pepper, depending on where you are in Italy. They slice it super thin, which makes the most luscious, decadent, juicy meatballs. So you have all of these ingredients. All of these ingredients. You put them in a bowl. And after, round wheel, bread and eggs. Bread and eggs. So in America, we serve meatballs with pasta. No, in Italy, it's not used in this. No, I know. No, no, no. No, I know, I never grew up with meatballs and pasta together. Pasta in one bowl, meatballs separate in another bowl, and then we would add them together if we wanted. There we go. Okay, now, it's more important, put inside parmesan. Parmigiano. It's a lot of parmigiano. The first ingredients in Italy. Yes, number one ingredient. So everybody makes a meatball all over Italy, but nobody, other than in Rome, makes them with margherita, yeah. Wow. Flour, pistachio. So finely ground pistachios. So now we make little meatballs? Yeah. The meatballs are deep fried, so we start by rolling them in flour. Later, they're gonna be finished in a sauce made of pistachio flour, butter, and white wine. Careful, don't burn. Right. Oh, look at that. It's like a little lamp. I love it. I adore these. Bravo, Francesco. Grazie. The flavor. This is my happy place.