Beef Croquettes “Mondeghili”

Everybody knows what a cutlet is. Or at least thinks they do. To most of us, a cutlet is a handful of ground meat with spices and onion, coated in flour or breadcrumbs and fried in a pan until done. Few people know that a classic cutlet is made from a whole piece of pounded meat, always with a rib bone attached. In fact, the word comes from the French côtelette, from côte, a rib.

What we are used to calling a cutlet is really another dish popular in Europe: the croquette. The word is French too, from croquer, to crunch.

Croquettes are not much different from ordinary cutlets in how they are made. The real difference is in the filling. Croquettes come in all shapes, from oblong or cylindrical to round as a ball. The filling can be raw meat, but also boiled or pre-fried meat. Fish, vegetables and mushrooms are also quite common. There are many kinds of coating, too, such as pike cutlets. Usually it is flour or breadcrumbs. But there are exotic options as well, for example a potato coating, which is very interesting. It is worth saying that this is a common fast-food variant.

Close relatives of croquettes are meatballs and frikadellen. By and large, the only difference is in how the filling is made. Meat balls are simply fried to get a crisp crust. Meatballs usually have fillers that add bulk (rice, potato) and are stewed in sauce after frying, or simply baked. Frikadellen are most often not breaded, just fried. Swedish beef meatballs are a very tasty dish when properly made and served with lingonberry sauce.

British potato croquettes can be made at home or simply bought frozen. Quite tasty, by the way, as a snack or a side dish. The Spanish fill theirs with chicken. It is very similar to our zrazy, and zrazy are in fact very close to croquettes. Even pancakes with meat are close relatives of croquettes. In Poland, a thin pancake with mushrooms, cabbage or cottage cheese, fried in butter, is a great “side dish” for borscht, and I am not joking.

Here in Ukraine our croquettes are “kartoplyaniki”, and whoever has eaten them will understand. They are small pancakes, more rarely balls, made of potato. Very often they have a mushroom or meat filling, which is simply incredible. They work as a side dish and as a treat on their own.

Mondeghili in Italy are very interesting. I once got to try them. They were called “mondeghili”. Small balls, a little bigger than a walnut, fried in breadcrumbs. The main difference from “our” cutlets is that they are made from boiled meat, with a few additions that are not quite usual for us: lemon zest, hard cheese and herbs. But in the end the dish practically jumps into your mouth and melts there like ice cream.