1. Mix the minced chicken or turkey with the minced bacon. Grate one onion and chop
or crush one clove of garlic. Add the grated onion, chopped garlic, soya sauce,
oregano, pinenuts and breadcrumbs to the meat, and mix all ingredients together
very very well.
2. Make small balls with the mixture - about the
size of a large marble. Coat them lightly in the flour (get a bowl, put some flour
in and roll each ball around) and put all the balls on a large plate until you
are ready to fry them.
3. Now make the sauce. Cut up the other onion
and chop the other garlic, and put both of them in a non-stick pan with a little
olive oil, the fresh parsley and some salt and pepper. Fry gently until they are
soft, and then chop the 2 tomatoes and add them. Finally grate the carrot and
add that too. Add the white wine and the cloves, half a stock cube dissolved in
half a cup of water, the peas, a bayleaf and a bit of tomato puré (or tomate
frito if you live in Spain). Stir well and put on a low heat.
4. Put some olive oil in a non-stick frying pan, enough to cover the bottom of
the pan, and fry the meatballs until they are brown all over. You don't have to
use lots of oil - turn them over so that they cook on all sides, and make sure
the heat isn't too strong, otherwise they might burn. You will probably need to
fry them in two or three batches, depending on the size of your frying pan. As
each batch is ready, put the meatballs straight into the pan with the sauce and
when they are all done and in the pan, leave them to simmer in the sauce for about
half an hour.
5. You can serve the meatballs on their own as a tapas
dish, or as a main course accompanied by a green leafy salad and/or a red
pepper salad.
-
Use virgin olive oil
if possible
- Use a dry or medium-dry white wine. Some people think
you can use any old wine for cooking, but the better the wine, the better the
flavour of the sauce
- Make sure the tomatoes are properly ripe. Plum tomatoes
are ideal for this recipie.
Varieties / Tips:
- If you prefer a tomatoe sauce for your Spanish meatballs, use
more tomate frito or, if you can't get hold of any, use half a tin of chopped
tomatoes aswell as a bit more tomato pure.
- The sauce should thicken naturally
because the meatballs are coated in flour. But if it seems too runny when the
meatballs are done, just take them out and turn up the heat to boil some of the
liquid away. Stir all the time so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan.
- If
you want to use the meatballs as a pasta or spaghetti sauce, just give the sauce
more of a tomato flavour (see above) and when you are rolling the meat mixture
into balls, make them a little smaller.
