Zucchine, barley and orzo coffee 'polpette'

© Sara Bardelli www.qualcosadirosso.com

This recipe is a 'guest' feature in our website. Sara Bardelli writes a lovely Italian food blog www.qualcosadirosso.com and has shared with us this amazing recipe with instant soluble orzo coffee.
It is also the first recipe we have included which is not a cake or dessert, this definitely expands the range of ideas on using orzo coffee in the kitchen. Thanks Sara for sharing this with us!

'Polpette' is the Italian word we use in the kitchen for a plate consisting of 'little balls', often these are meat balls (polpette di carne) but they can actually use other ingredients. In fact, this is a vegeterian /vegan friendly recipe. 

© Sara Bardelli

Ingredients for 6-8 polpette:

♥ 40 g of pearl barley (this can be found in most health food store)

♥ 180 g of courgettes (in Italian zucchine) 

♥ 1 tbsp of organic sunflowers seeds

♥ 1 tsp of instant soluble orzo coffee

♥ salt 

♥ extra virgin olive oil

♥ some old (dry) bread to make breadcrumbs

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First you need to cook the pearl barley. Place it in a pan and cover with cold water, bring it to boil and let it simmer for 25 minutes circa. When it is cooked, drain the pearl barley. 
Dice the courgettes in little squares, less than half centimeter. Stir fry them in a very hot pan with a little drop of olive oil and salt. Stir fry briefly also the sunflower seeds.  

© Sara Bardelli www.qualcosadirosso.com

You can now mix all the ingredients together: barley, courgette and sunflower seeds. Add the salt, olive oil and the instant orzo coffee. 
Take a small part of the ingredients and place it in a mixer or blender - this will allow you to have a 'glue' to hold the ingredients together without using eggs. 
Mix the solid ingredients, with the blended ones and form little balls, roll each ball in the breadcrumbs.
You can eat and serve the polpette cold - as a summer dish - or you can warm them up in the oven before serving.

© Sara Bardelli www.qualcosadirosso.com

The instant orzo coffee enhances the flavours of this dish: it empowers the toasted aroma of the seeds and enrich the taste of pearl barley. 


You can find more recipes ideas from Sara on www.qualcosadirosso.com and you can also follow her on twitter @qualcosadirosso