Rachel Roddy’s Guardian recipe feature published on October 8, 2026, offers a recipe for fried cheese-and-bread balls inspired by pallotte cacio e ova, a dish associated with the Italian regions of Abruzzo and Molise. Roddy’s recipe uses grated cheese, eggs and soft breadcrumbs, with the shaped balls chilled before frying.
Ingredients and method
The recipe calls for two eggs, 150 grams of grated cheese and between 80 and 120 grams of soft breadcrumbs. Roddy directs readers to shape the mixture into balls and chill them for at least an hour before frying them in oil.
The feature presents the recipe as Roddy’s own account and instructions. The reported cooking experience and her culinary judgments are attributable to the writer, rather than independently tested findings.
A dish linked to two regions
The Guardian describes the dish as typical of both Abruzzo and Molise. Its article notes that the two areas were one region until 1964, a shorthand for a separation process that involved formal steps across 1963 and 1964.
Italy’s constitutional law establishing Molise was dated December 27, 1963, published in the official gazette on January 4, 1964, and entered into force on January 19 that year. The Molise regional government also describes the region as having been linked to the Abruzzi before gaining regional autonomy.
Roddy speculates that the balls were invented as a way to use scraps. That is presented as conjecture, not a documented origin. The Italian Academy of Cuisine says documentary evidence does not establish the dish’s historical origins, while noting its presence in Abruzzo and neighboring Molise.