Albondigas recipe version 1

Albondigas are Spanish meatballs, often served as tapas, and usually smothered in a tasty tomato sauce. I like to spice mine up a little – so here’s one of the recipes I use. Let me know how you get on!

Makes 12 one inch meatballs

Ingredients

• 225 g ( 8 oz) minced beef or lamb
• 1 onion really finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• A good glug of olive oil
• 250 g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbs pimenton picante (spicy paprika)
• As many chopped chillies as your palate can handle (of course the chillies are optional)
• pinch of sugar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• fresh thyme, to garnish

Method

Place the mince, onion, garlic, salt and pepper into a large bowl and mix well. If you think you’ve mixed enough… then mix for a couple more minutes just to be sure

Shape the mixture into 12 evenly sized meatballs

Heat the olive oil in a very large saucepan on a medium heat and cook the meatballs until they are brown – turning them frequently so they don’t burn

Add the tomatoes, chopped chillies, pimenton and sugar and stir once, very gently.

Turn the heat right down – cover and simmer for around 20 minutes until the tomatoes have pulped, and the meatballs are cooked throughout.

Serve with plenty of bread for dunking into the sauce, and garnish with your favourite fresh chopped herb – I like it with basil.

¡Disfruta!

Elle Draper

Elle, along with Alan, is the owner of Spain Buddy and the busy web design business – Spain Web Design by Gandy-Draper.
Born a “Norverner”, she then spent most of her life “Dann Saff” before moving to Spain in 2006. Elle’s loves are Alan, the internet, dogs, good food, and dry white wine – although not necessarily in that order.