One of the historic shops in Milan, open since 1921 and synonymous with Milanese cuisine for almost a century. They make the typical meatballs with cabbage or spinach, and lots of vegetables in the dough
Everyone in Milan knows it, because Trattoria Masuelli San Marco opened in 1921 and has remained true to itself: a magical, vital and enjoyable place. White tablecloths, wooden chairs and wainscoting, international awards and dedications from writers, gourmants and historic food and wine pens. You can breathe the history of three generations and a city, and today Max Masuelli, grandson of the founders, continues the tradition in the kitchen, aware of how this is an inexhaustible source of creativity for recipes with a contemporary style firmly anchored to the threads of memory. Classic recipes, simple, but the result of a lot of technique and professionalism. Here you can eat Milanese cutlet, strictly on the bone, saffron risotto, polenta, fried brains and the classic cassoeula. Inevitable on the menu, i mondeghili the typical Milanese meatballs.
Mondeghili, the Milan of the past, today
Mondeghili are a recipe for recycling, like many meatballs, and are made starting from leftovers of cooked meat, such as braised or boiled, mixed with stale bread and what is available. Breaded, they are then fried in a pan, once in butter, and flattened like small burgers. Today the recipe is different, it starts from fresh meat, but does not lose its soul; and not even the cabbage, a classic of Lombard cuisine "Obviously these ingredients can be replaced with what we have in the refrigerator these days or other ingredients that are left to us, such as cotechino, boiled meat, salami …". Creativity is also this.
Ingredients for 4 people
2 celery sticks
2 carrots
1 onion
300 g of veal (or boiled)
100 ml of white wine
50 g breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
nutmeg
100 g of salami
100 g of pork sausage
4 spoons of Parmesan
50 g of spinach or cabbage
2 eggs
breadcrumbs and flour for breading
frying oil
Method
Wash and cut celery, carrots and onion into small pieces. Put everything in a pan and brown with a drizzle of oil. Add the meat and continue to brown. Deglaze with white wine and add broth to cover. Cook for at least 2 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a saucepan add the clean sausage and cut into small pieces, with the salami and vegetables (spinach or cabbage), then brown.
Then blend the meat together with the sausage, then add the salami and vegetables until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. After blending all the ingredients together, add the breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan and nutmeg to taste.
When the dough is ready, balls form about 45 g each. Bread with eggs, flour and breadcrumbs.
Cook the mondeghili in abundant oil for 5 minutes at 170º.