Albondigas

Meatballs are served in bars and restaurants all over Spain. They can be eaten as tapas or as a main course when they would generally be served with bread or chips. The sauce may vary from bar to bar but here I have given the recipe for a traditional tomato sauce. I have used fresh tomatoes but if you prefer you can use 500g of tinned, chopped tomatoes. There is absolutely no need to peel and deseed the fresh tomatoes as the sauce will be put in a blender once it has cooked.

Ingredients

For about 30-35 meatballs

• 1kg of minced beef or pork or a combination of both
• 8 tablespoons of bread crumbs
• 6 tablespoons of white wine
• 2 eggs slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons of parsley finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• a plate of plain flour
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil for frying the meatballs

Ingredients for the tomato sauce

• 8 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1kg ripe tomatoes chopped
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Cooking Method

In a large mixing bowl put the parsley, garlic, slightly beaten egg, minced meat, bread crumbs, wine and some salt and pepper to season. Mix well with your hands, then use your hands to make small balls from the mixture and cover them lightly in the flour.

Now you can make a choice. In Spain the meat balls would be fried in a large amount of light olive oil but you may prefer to shallow fry them. Whichever way you choose you should heat the oil in a large, heavy frying pan and cook the meatballs for about 5 minutes turning them often to brown them evenly all over.

Remove the meatballs from the frying pan and place them in a casserole making sure they are not touching the sides of the casserole or each other.

To make the sauce heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Fry gently for about 5 minutes until it starts to become golden. Then add the chopped tomatoes and cook them for about 10 minutes crushing them well with the back of a wooden spoon, add the salt, pepper and sugar and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove the mix from the heat and use a handheld food blender to blend the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the meatballs, place the casserole on a gentle heat and cook the meatballs for another 10 or 15 minutes in the sauce.

Serve with crusty bread which you can use to mop up all the sauce.