Soutzoukakia

Ingredients

The meatballs

• 700 gminced beef
• or beef and pork mixed
• 100 gstale bread
• crusts removed
• soaked in water and squeezed
• 5garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 teaspoonsground cumin
• 1egg
• salt and black pepper

To fry

• olive oil
• for shallow frying
• flour, for dusting
• optional

The sauce

• 800 gchopped tomatoes
• tinned or fresh
• 1onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoonstomato purée
• 1 teaspoonsugar
• 1cinnamon stick
• or half a teaspoon ground
• 3 tablespoonsolive oil
• salt and black pepper

To serve

• white rice
• or fried potatoes
• chopped parsley
• crusty bread

Directions

1. Soak the bread in water rather than milk here. Squeeze it out thoroughly before adding it. Wet bread makes a sloppy unworkable mixture. Squeeze until no water runs out at all. An hour in the refrigerator is enough. Soak the stale bread in water briefly. Tear it into pieces before soaking it. Give it about five minutes to soften.
2. Squeeze until it is genuinely dry. Mix the meat, bread, garlic, cumin and egg. Work everything together with your hands. Mix it thoroughly rather than lightly. The mixture should be entirely uniform. Season it generously with salt and pepper.
3. Work it for two or three full minutes. Fry a small piece to check the seasoning. Fry a teaspoonful and taste that instead. Adjust the salt, cumin or garlic then.
4. Cover the mixture and chill it for an hour. Cold mixture is far easier to shape. Roll the mixture into elongated ovals. Take a golf ball sized piece of mixture. Roll it between your palms into a sausage. Make them about eight centimetres long. Keep them all the same size and shape.
5. Roll each one until the surface is smooth. Wet your hands slightly to smooth them. Work them firmly rather than gently. Fry the meatballs in olive oil until browned. Dust them lightly in flour first if you like. That helps them brown and hold together. Shake off all the excess flour though. Get the oil genuinely hot before they go in.
6. Use about one centimetre of oil in the pan. Fry them in batches rather than all at once. Leave space between each meatball. Let the oil recover between batches. Give them about six minutes in total.
7. Turn them so they brown on every side. They need not be cooked through yet. Turn them gently with tongs rather than a fork. Turn them only when the underside has browned. Moving them too early breaks the crust. Lift them onto kitchen paper to drain. Otherwise the sauce becomes greasy. Let them sit there while you make the sauce. Do not stack them while they are hot.
8. Cook the onion in olive oil until soft. Use the same pan for the flavour left in it. Pour off most of the frying oil first. Give the onion about eight minutes. Add the tomato purée and cook it briefly. Fry the purée for about two minutes.
9. Add the cinnamon and the sugar as well. One teaspoon is enough for this quantity. Simmer the sauce for about fifteen minutes. It should thicken and darken during that time.
10. Stir it so it does not catch on the base. Season it well with salt and pepper. Arrange them in a single layer if you can. Spoon sauce over the tops of them. They should be mostly covered by the sauce. Add a splash of water if it is too thick.
11. Simmer the meatballs gently for thirty minutes. The sauce takes up flavour from them too. Shake it gently instead to move them. Turn them once carefully with tongs.
12. Keep it at a gentle simmer rather than a boil. The sauce should be thick enough to coat them. Simmer it uncovered if it stays too thin. Add water if it becomes too thick. Remove the cinnamon stick before serving. Taste and adjust the seasoning once more. Serve the meatballs with plenty of sauce.
13. Spoon a generous amount of sauce over. Do not be at all sparing with it. Scatter chopped parsley over the plates. Add it at the last moment before serving. It keeps three days refrigerated in a covered dish.

Technique

• Squeeze the soaked bread genuinely dry before it goes into the mixture — wet bread makes a sloppy unworkable meat mixture. Work the mixture thoroughly for two or three minutes, since well worked mince holds together far better and under-mixed meatballs fall apart in the pan.
• Fry a small piece to check the seasoning before shaping, since raw mince cannot be tasted safely. Chill the mixture an hour before shaping, which firms it, makes it far easier to handle and lets the flavours settle.
• Do not stir the pan once the meatballs are in the sauce — shake it gently instead, turning them once with tongs, since stirring breaks them apart. Keep it at a bare simmer, since hard boiling breaks them up and makes the sauce catch.

Substitutions

• A mixture of beef and pork replaces all beef. Dusting the meatballs lightly in flour before frying helps them brown and hold together, though some cooks skip it entirely; shake off all excess if you use it.
• Fried potatoes replace the rice and both are genuinely served in Greek homes. Ground cinnamon replaces the stick in the sauce.

Variations

• Soutzoukakia came to Greece from Smyrna with refugees after the 1922 catastrophe and the compulsory population exchange mandated by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which moved around one and a half million people. It was forced rather than voluntary in any sense, uprooting people from homes held for generations on a criterion of religion rather than language, so that many moved to countries whose language they did not speak. The atlas records that plainly rather than softening it. The name is a diminutive of the Turkish sucuk, a spiced dried sausage, and they are often called soutzoukakia smyrneika — from Smyrna — which keeps the origin in the name.
• The elongated oval shape is what defines them: round meatballs are keftedes, a different dish. Make them about eight centimetres long with slightly tapered ends and roll each smooth, since cracks open further as they fry.
• Cumin and garlic used generously are the Anatolian signature here, where Greek keftedes use oregano and mint — do not reduce either. The cinnamon in the tomato sauce surprises people but is entirely characteristic, a background warmth rather than a sweet note.

History

Brought from Smyrna by refugees after the 1922 population exchange; the name is a diminutive of the Turkish sucuk.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soutzoukakia?

Soutzoukakia is a main from Greece: cumin-and-garlic meatballs stewed in tomato sauce. Brought from Smyrna by refugees after the 1922 population exchange; the name is a diminutive of the Turkish sucuk.

How long does Soutzoukakia take to make?

Soutzoukakia takes 30 minutes plus chilling of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Soutzoukakia?

Yes, within limits. A mixture of beef and pork replaces all beef. Dusting the meatballs lightly in flour before frying helps them brown and hold together, though some cooks skip it entirely; shake off all excess if you use it. Fried potatoes replace the rice and both are genuinely served in Greek homes. Ground cinnamon replaces the stick in the sauce.

What is the most important thing to get right in Soutzoukakia?

Soak the bread in water rather than milk here. Squeeze it out thoroughly before adding it. Wet bread makes a sloppy unworkable mixture. Squeeze until no water runs out at all. An hour in the refrigerator is enough. Soak the stale bread in water briefly. Tear it into pieces before soaking it. Give it about five minutes to soften.