Meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce (Boles de picolat)
This recipe came from a stall in Prades market where they were cooking boles meatballs in a huge paella pan. They were fabulous – beef and pork meatballs flavoured with cinnamon and piment d’Espelette in an exquisite tomato sauce with green olives, haricot beans and bacon. I thought there might be too much meat in the dish, but not at all.
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 400g/14oz beef mince
- 400g/14oz pork mince
- 1 free-range egg, beaten
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
- small handful fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp piment d’Espelette or pimentón
- 2–3 tbsp plain flour, plus extra for rolling
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the spicy tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 100g/3½oz unsmoked bacon lardons or cubes of cooked ham
- 1 tsp piment d’Espelette or pimentón
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 150g/5½oz pitted green olives, drained
- 400g tin haricot beans, drained and rinsed
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- freshly cooked rice, to serve (optional)
Method
To make the meatballs, mix the beef, pork, egg, garlic, parsley, cinnamon, piment d’Espelette and 2 tablespoons of flour in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Using your hands, shape the mixture into golf ball-sized spheres, adding another tablespoon of flour if the mixture feels too wet to form into balls. Roll the balls in flour to lightly cover. Heat the oil in a large, preferably shallow, flameproof casserole dish and brown the meatballs all over. Remove from the dish and set aside.
For the sauce, heat the oil in the same casserole dish and fry the onion and lardons until the onions are softened. Add the piment d’Espelette and cinnamon and cook for a minute, then add the tomatoes, tomato purée and 250ml/9fl oz water. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down, cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the olives, beans and meatballs, together with any juices they have released.
Cover the dish and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and simmer for 10–15 minutes. Check a couple of times during cooking and add a little more water if the sauce looks too thick. Serve as a tapas dish or as a main dish with rice.
