Spanish Meatballs Recipe

Spanish Meatballs

Spicy pork meatballs with a tangy tomato and lemon sauce

Serves 4

You will need:

Olive oil
Bunch of flat leaf parsley
3 onions, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, 2 finely chopped, 1 thinly sliced
500g Minced Pork
1 egg yolk
100g fine breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
1 dsp dried Chilli flakes
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 lemon

Method:

Fry half of the chopped onions in a little olive oil.  When softened, add the finely chopped parsley stalks and the 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic.  Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Add the minced pork, chopped parsley (leave some for decoration), breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and chilli flakes.  Then get your hands in and give it a good mix.

Form the mixture into 12 meatballs and place in the fridge (or freezer if you are short on time).

While the meatballs chill, make the sauce.

Fry the remaining onions until soft.  Add the garlic, chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and bring to a simmer.

Add the whole lemon - yes the whole lemon!!

Leave the lemon in the sauce until it softens, then take the lemon out, cut it in half and add the juice of one half. With the other half, finely chop it, rind and all, and add to the sauce.

Simmer the sauce until it has a thick consistency.

While the sauce simmers, fry the meatballs.  This is best done in a frying pan with a lid.  Brown the meatballs with the lid off and then put the lid on and cook until the meatballs are cooked through, about 20 mins.

I serve it with pasta, I know it's not very Spanish.

Mix the boiled pasta with the tomato sauce, place on a plate with meatballs on top and sprinkle with the remaining parsley.

Adapted from Jamie Oliver does Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, Greece and France.