Last week I promised to post two more thrifty Italian ways of dealing with leftover bread -- learning from the source about Italy’s cucina povera. The first is from Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot and one of the most exciting parts of the country to visit. The Sunday New York Times Travel section agrees. In an article on "The 31 Places to Go in 2010," the editors recently cited Puglia’s Gargano Peninsula (the spur of the heel of the book) as having "fabulous food and lodging on the cheap," to say nothing of its remote location that makes it an escape from the usual tourist crowd. I’m pleased because years ago I wrote a book called "Flavors of Puglia" about the wonderful foods and wines of this region, only to have the book drop promptly out of sight. You can still find it on used book sites where it’s in great demand -- clearly a title ahead of its time!

The Pugliese are renowned for an almost vegetarian cuisine. Not surprising since some of Italy’s finest vegetables (artichokes to zucchini, and lots in between) are grown here, many organically, and shipped all over Europe. So it stands to reason that meatballs made without meat, polpette di pane, would be a star on local tables. I’ve never figured out how to describe these in English since polpette, the Italian term, is always translated as "meatballs." Bread meatballs? I don’t think so. Meatless meatballs is about as close as I can come. They’re also sometimes called polpette di lupo, wolf meatballs, though whether they were once made of wolf meat (I jest) or are so called because they keep the wolf from the door, is anyone’s guess. But they are delicious; a wonderful way to use up old bread, and a delight on the table even of the most rigorous carnivore.

Polpette di Lupo/Polpette di Pane

This makes 30 balls, enough for 6 to 8 servings as an appetizer. If you wish, serve them with a quick tomato sauce made by cooking down a 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes with a little garlic and oil, then whizzing them in a food processor to make a sauce.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Soak the bread slices in milk until they’re soaked through, then squeeze dry. Crumble and tear the soaked bread into smaller pieces, then process in the food processor, using quick pulses, until crumbs have formed. Don’t over-process!
2. Add the crumbs to a bowl with the beaten eggs, about a ½ cup of grated cheese and about ⅓ cup of minced herbs and garlic (these "measurements" are all very adjustable, depending on your taste). Add a sprinkle of salt and a little black pepper (you could also add a little ground chili pepper if you wish, although Pugliese cooks would not). Toss the mixture with a fork to mix it all together well, then taste and adjust the flavor, adding more cheese, herbs or seasoning if necessary.
3. Now wet your hands, which makes it easier to shape, and form the mixture into fat round balls about 1½  inches in diameter--not so tightly packed but compressed enough so they hold together well. Set the balls aside on a rack or plate to dry for 15 or 20 minutes.
4. In a saucepan or deep skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil to frying temperature (about 360­ F or the temperature it takes to make a small cube of bread sizzle and turns golden in a minute or so).
5. Fry the bread balls, turning them gently, until they’re brown on all sides. Remove them as they brown and drain on a rack covered with paper towels. Arrange them on a platter and spoon the tomato sauce over.
6. Garnish with a little more grated cheese and serve immediately.

The second recipe is more complicated and may deter cooks who don't have access to some of the fresh key ingredients. It’s called pasta con le sarde, or pasta with sardines, and it’s a favorite Sicilian dish, especially for the feast of San Giuseppe (St. Joseph) which is coming up March 19. It’s a complex combination of flavors that seems to draw on all of Sicilian history and geography. Because it’s made with fresh wild fennel greens and fresh sardines, it’s something most of us will have to dream about -- until we get to Sicily.

But in California, where the wild fennel should be sending up fresh new greens along the sides of country roads, it’s a breeze -- as long as you can find sardines. (Reminds me of that old saw: "If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs . . .  if we had any eggs.”) So why promote a recipe with difficult-to-find ingredients? My theory is this: If enough people across the country start asking for fresh wild fennel greens, some enterprising Californian will start to harvest and market them.

Do you have to be so fastidious? Yes, you do. A food writer friend once developed a recipe for pasta con le sarde using canned sardines and the greens of domesticated fennel, the kind you find in every supermarket produce section. But in the end, even she admitted, it was but a pale and not very worthy imitation of the real thing.

So, for all you Californians, here’s the real recipe for pasta con le sarde and the rest of us will just keep dreaming. The bread crumbs, you will see, come in at the end as a garnish instead of grated cheese.

To make them, simply grate stale country-style bread in a grater or in the food processor if that seems easier (it doesn’t, to me, at least for a small quantity), then set them in a skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring, until they are golden brown and crisp. Be careful not to burn them and remove them from the heat the instant they are done. (You could make these in larger quantities and store what you don’t use for this recipe -- they keep well and shouldn’t need refrigeration.)

Pasta Con Le Sarde

This should make 6 servings as a first course.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Chop the fennel into pieces about an inch long, using only the tender parts, then rinse well under running water. You should have about 4 cups of chopped fennel.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and drop in all the fennel. Boil for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the thickest pieces are easily pierced with the tip of a knife. Drain the fennel by pulling it out with a slotted spoon. Don't discard the cooking water which will be used to cook the pasta. You should have about 2 cups of cooked drained greens.
3. While the greens are cooking, prepare the sardine fillets. Set aside about ¼ of them to be fried (you should have at least one fillet to top each serving) and chop the rest into bite-sized pieces.
4. Remove about ½-cup of the cooking water and add the saffron to it. Set aside to let it steep.
5. As soon as you can handle it, chop the fennel coarsely. Heat 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute the fennel until it absorbs the oil and starts to give off its very pleasant aroma. Remove the fennel from the skillet and set aside.
6. Add some more oil to the skillet and set it over medium-low heat. Cook the chopped onion gently, stirring, until it is soft and golden but not starting to brown. Stir in the chopped anchovies and press them with a fork to mash them into the sauce. Stir in the tomato paste and the wine and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the chopped sardines and cook, stirring, until they’ve turned opaque.
7. Add the chopped fennel greens, mixing well, then the raisins, pine nuts and saffron water, along with a little salt and black pepper. Simmer very, very gently, stirring occasionally, while you fry the sardine fillets and cook the pasta. Check now and then and if the sauce is getting too dry, add a little more white wine or water.
8. Dry the reserved sardine fillets very well with paper towels, then lightly coat them in a little flour.
9. Heat about ¼ cup of oil in a small skillet over medium heat and when it’s hot brown the fillets quickly on both sides. Transfer the fillets to a rack covered with paper towels to drain.
10. Add enough water to the fennel water to make 6 quarts. Bring it to a boil and add salt to taste. As soon as it’s boiling vigorously, drop in the pasta and cook until done, drain well, and dress immediately with the hot fennel and sardine sauce.
11. Garnish each serving with a fried fillet and top with a good handful of toasted bread crumbs.

PS: If this all seems like too much of a production, just remember that the toasted bread crumbs add an elegant touch to any pasta, seafood or not.

Nancy Harmon Jenkins is the author of several books, including "Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of the Cuisines of Southern Italy" and "The Essential Mediterranean."

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