Albóndigas en Salsa

Spanish Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Small beef meatballs, floured, fried and then simmered in a plain tomato sauce until they have given it their flavour. They appear as a tapa with bread, as a main course with chips or rice, and on nearly every menú del día in the country.

The Spanish recipe read makes the sauce first: onion and garlic softened for ten minutes, tomato simmered for half an hour, a little white wine at the end. The meat is mixed with egg, milk, breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley, rested for ten minutes, shaped, floured, fried in batches and finished in the sauce for 20 minutes.

Ingredients

For the sauce

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 80 g onion (1 small), finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 600 g passata or tinned crushed tomatoes
  • 30 ml dry white wine (2 tbsp)
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • Fine sea salt

For the meatballs

  • 700 g minced beef
  • 2 eggs
  • 70 ml milk
  • 20 g dried breadcrumbs
  • 3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 tsp fine sea salt
  • Plain flour, for dusting
  • Olive oil, for shallow frying

Method

  1. Make the sauce Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes until soft. Add the tomatoes, sugar and a pinch of salt and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring now and then. Add the wine and cook for 5 minutes more.
  2. Mix the meat Beat the eggs with the milk, garlic, breadcrumbs, parsley and salt. Add the mince and mix thoroughly with your hands. Rest for 10 minutes.
  3. Shape and flour With wet hands, roll the mixture into balls of about 3 cm; you should have about 36. Roll them lightly in flour and shake off the excess.
  4. Fry Heat 1 cm of oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the meatballs in batches for 4 to 5 minutes, turning, until browned all over. They do not need to be cooked through. Drain on kitchen paper.
  5. Simmer Put the sauce and meatballs in a wide casserole, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through with no pink in the middle (75°C). Serve with bread, chips or rice.

Food safety

Minced meat must be cooked through. Cut one meatball open to check that there is no pink, or check that the centre has reached 75°C.

Wet hands stop the mixture sticking as you roll.

They reheat well and are better the next day.

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