Photo: Celery Polpette Recipe
Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- 1 large bunch celery
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 3 teaspoons minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
Directions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cut the celery stalks into 2-inch pieces (reserve the leaves). Boil the celery until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water, then spin in a salad spinner and pat dry. Pulse the celery in a food processor until chopped. Squeeze handfuls of the puree in a kitchen towel to remove excess water.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery puree, 1/3 cup parsley, 2 teaspoons minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until soft, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool. Reserve the skillet.
Mix the eggs, breadcrumbs and parmesan into the celery mixture. Roll into about 16 small balls; refrigerate until firm, 20 to 30 minutes.
Heat the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery balls and cook, turning, until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Pour off half of the oil from the skillet. Add the tomato paste, the remaining 1 teaspoon minced garlic and the red pepper flakes; cook over medium heat until the garlic starts to brown, about 1 minute. Add 2/3 cup water and whisk until emulsified, about 30 seconds. Return the celery balls to the sauce and heat through. Add the reserved celery leaves and the remaining 2 tablespoons parsley.
Photograph by Anna Williams
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By sjn1992
Danville
on September 17, 2011
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Made this the other day and boy was it a lot of work! However the results were great! I had my roommate try it and she couldn't believe it was made out of celery! I did keep some of the celery juice and add it to the sauce to keep some of the nutritional value from the celery and substituted some of the bread crumbs with oatmeal to make it a tad more healthy. I also found that these "celery balls" had enough oil in them and just put them straight on the pan to cook and turned them over on their sides- no need to add more oil and fry. They came out very tasty!
By Talkingman
on May 01, 2011
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Very good, very flavorful. Labor-intensive, but worth it for the reactions you get when you tell people it's "celery meatballs." One major tip: Don't pan-fry them, deep-fry them. In the pan they flatten on a side and become misshapen and unevenly browned. Deep-frying leaves them perfect. I like the idea from lakotamoon to add the celery juice to the sauce. Nice touch. I also made a vegan version by substituting tapioca for the eggs, using vegan breadcrumbs and leaving out the cheese. Actually, the flavor isn't much different, and the tapioca holds it together very nicely.
Note to sgdionne: I used an entire head of celery, minus the leaves and butt end, of course. The ratios seemed right.
By lakotamoon1
Long Valley, 70
on April 23, 2011
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this is absolutely great! We accidentally put tomato paste in the mixture and it is fantastic!!!!!! so for the sauce, we used the reserved juice from straining the celery and made a sauce using more tomato sauce and corn starch, garlic, salt and pepper. The greatest recipe ever!
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