Polpette al Sugo - Meatrolls with Tomato Sauce

This is an Autumn/Winter dish prepared in Lazio which is very practical as the sauce obtained during cooking can be used to dress pasta or Gnocchi. The following quantities are enough for 5 people

Ingredients
- 10 slices of Veil
- 1 light Tomato Sauce (Passata)
- 10 extra thin slices of Bacon
- 1 Onion (fine chopped)
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Celery
- ½ glass White Wine
- Salt and Pepper

Instructions

• Put the veil on a chopping board, place a slice of bacon, a stick of carrot and celery on top of the veil
• Roll it and secure with a toothpick
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper (remember that the bacon is already salty)
• To prepare the soffritto* put some olive oil in a large sauce pan and fry the onion
• Once the onion is a light golden colour, add the meat rolls and gently move them around to seal the meat on a medium to high heat
• Add the wine and let it evaporate
• Add the tomato sauce and 2 glasses of water, plus some salt and pepper to taste
• Allow to cook until the sauce gets thick enough which should be approximately 30 minutes

To Serve
The best accompaniment to the dish is a dry red wine such as a Chianti or a San Giovese as well as a green beans salad

*Soffritto is the base of a lot of Italian dishes, the verb soffriggere means to lightly fry something. A soffritto is basically made of fried onions or garlic, then, according to the recipe, you can add carrots, celery, other herbs and some chilli pepper