Cheesy Meat Rolls: Bombette Pugliesi Recipe from Italy
Meet Bombette Pugliesi, the popular Apulian street food. These small, round meat rolls packed with cheese and pancetta are a beloved delicacy from Italy’s Puglia region. Originating in the 1960s in Martina Franca, Bombette have become a staple of local cuisine and a must-try for food enthusiasts.
Ingredients
- 12 slices of pork neck or pork loin cut very thin
- 12 slices of bacon or pancetta
- 150 g of semi-aged Caciocavallo
- Fresh parsley to taste
- 1 clove of garlic
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Dice the Caciocavallo cheese, finely chop the parsley, and mince the garlic, removing the core.
- Lay the meat slices on a cutting board and pound them with a meat mallet to thin them out. If you don’t have a mallet, flattening them with your fingers by spreading them outward works well.
- Season the meat with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Placing a slice of bacon, a cube of caciocavallo, and some parsley and garlic on each meat slice.
- Roll the stuffed meat slices starting from one end and folding the edges toward the center as you roll, to prevent the filling from escaping during cooking. Once rolled, secure the meat slice with a wooden skewer (toothpick) to give it the appearance of a “bombetta.”
- Now it’s time to cook the Pugliese bombette.
OVEN VERSION
- Grease a baking dish large enough to hold all the bombette. Bake them in a preheated oven at 200 °C (400 °F) for about 20 minutes, and finish cooking by turning on the broiler for a few minutes until they are nicely browned.
SKILLET VERSION
- For the pan-fried version, lightly grease a non-stick skillet and heat it over medium-high heat. Place the bombette in the skillet in a single layer and cook on both sides until browned.
- Serve the Pugliese bombette piping hot to enhance the explosion of flavor.