Mondeghili

Mondeghili are fried meatballs from Milan and the wider Lombardy region, made from leftover cuts of meat, usually beef, chopped together with a little sausage, mortadella or other pork and bound with an egg and bread soaked in milk. The mixture is shaped into small balls somewhere between a meatball and a little patty, breaded and fried in butter. The dish took shape under Spanish rule of the Duchy of Milan, between 1535 and 1706, and its name is thought to come from the Spanish albondiga, which in turn goes back to an Arabic word for fried meatballs. The first recipe on record dates from 1839, and the dish turns up in Milanese dialect writing and in Manzoni's novel The Betrothed. The City of Milan gave it a municipal designation of origin in 2008. Today it is a popular street food and a common companion to an aperitivo, also served as a starter or a second course.