Polpettone with Onion-Shallot Jam over Creamy Root Vegetable Purée

Directions

1. Onion-Shallot Jam and Creamy Root Vegetable Purée
2. Prepare onion jam. Generously film bottom of a heavy-bottomed pan or skillet with some good olive oil over medium heat. When warm, add onions and shallots along with a couple of good pinches of salt. Cover pan, and when contents begin cooking nicely, reduce heat. Continue cooking, stirring often (if some bits brown, that's fine, just not too much). When it looks as if much of the water has been cooked away, stir in the white wine. Cook until a sweetly rich, silky concentration is reached. Remove from heat. You'll reheat just before serving.
3. Alternatively, make twice as much. Store the extra in a container in your refrigerator. Add it to soups, salad dressings, omelettes, grilled cheese sandwiches, or anything you think could benefit from some sweet silken richness.
4. While jam is reducing, begin cooking the root vegetables. Add cream to a heavy-bottomed stainless steel pot (aluminum will react badly with the lactic acid in the cream causing an off-taste and gray color). Add the vegetables, cover pot and begin heating over medium heat. Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce heat a bit. Cook, stirring somewhat often, until vegetables can be VERY easily pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Remove from heat. You will reheat, purée, and season just before serving. It's much easier to reheat in the rough state.

1. Polpettone and Filling
2. Prepare filling to set aside and permit flavors to blend. Place rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes, diced mozzarella, horseradish, lemon juice and zest in bowl of food processor. Pulse just until ingredients are relatively uniform in size - very small, but not a puréed paste. Scoop into a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Mix polpettone. Place ground turkey, Panko, egg, salt & pepper, and oregano in a mixing bowl. If you've got gloves, use 'em. Mix ingredients with your hands until completely blended.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
5. Shape and fill polpettone. Again wearing gloves, pick up a sort of small tennis-ball size of turkey mixture. Gently shape it into a ball. Press a large indentation into it with a thumb. With a spoon, scoop a generous amount of filling into it. Pinch it closed, then gently roll the polpettone between your palms to create a small football. Set on parchment. Repeat until all turkey mixture is gone.
6. If you have filling left over, because not all of us visualize the same small-tennis-ball size, and "generous" can have different meanings, do not despair. Put it in a ziplock bag and freeze it. Use it in ravioli filling, in omelettes - you get my drift.
7. Before baking, pour 2 cups Panko into a baking dish. Gently pick up each polpettone. Place in Panko, and with your hands gather it up around sides and end of polpettone. Turn it over and repeat on other side. Repeat until all polpettone have been coated.
8. Bake polpettone until gently browned and and instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 165 degrees, about 20 minutes.
9. While polpettone are baking, reheat root vegetables. When nicely hot, remove from heat and purée right in the pot with an immersion blender (if you don't have one, this would be an excellent reason to get one - and I don't take on new appliances quickly). Season to taste with salt and pepper. It should take your breath away, by the way. Also reheat the lovely onion-shallot jam.
10. To serve, spread a puddle of the root vegetable purée in the center of each plate. Set two polpettone in it and top with the onion-shallot jam. Garnish with green of your choice - chopped fennel fronds, Italian parsley, basil chiffonade. Have a lovely dinner!