Albondigas
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 1 to 2 hours
- Serve
- Serves 2
Serve these Spanish meatballs as part of a tapas spread – perfect alongside chorizo in cider and prawns pil pil.
Ingredients
For the albondigas sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 fresh thyme sprigs,leaves picked
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 400g tin tomatoes
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the albondigas
- 400g/14oz steak mince
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 15g/½oz breadcrumbs
- 1 free-range egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
To make the albondigas sauce, place the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat then fry the onions, garlic and peppers together with the bay and thyme.
Add the smoked paprika, dried red chilli flakes and tomato purée, then the tomatoes. Cook gently for around 1 hour until thick. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Keep warm.
Meanwhile, to make the albondigas, in a bowl mix together all the ingredients apart from the olive oil. Season well with salt and black pepper. Roll the mixture into 8 golf ball-sized balls.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat, then add the albondigas and fry all over for about 4 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with the albondigas sauce.
