Albondigas Recipe: Spanish Chorizo & Pork Meatballs with Sherried Tomato Sauce

At this time of year, this simple, warming meatball recipe is sure to please everyone. Known in Spanish as ‘albondigas’ my take on this classic dish, which blends minced pork and chorizo, makes for a great supper dish, part of a tapas spread or as canapés with drinks…

Ingredients

You will need:

• 300 grams each of good quality cooking chorizo and pork sausage meat
• 1 medium finely chopped onion
• 1 heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp of thyme
• 2 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley
• Large handful of breadcrumbs
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Egg to bind

Cooking instructions

How to make the dish:

For the meatballs:

1. Mix all of the above ingredients and shape in to whatever size meatballs you fancy.
2. Then bake in oven or pan fry to gain some colour. (It’s sometimes a good idea to pan fry just one to check for seasoning.)

For the Sherried tomato sauce:

You will need:

• 1 x medium chopped onion
• 2 tbs of olive oil
• 1 kilo ripe peeled & chopped tomatoes
• 1 x large glass of dry sherry
• 6 tablespoons of pasata

1. Fry chopped onions.
2. Add good quality chopped tomatoes and dry sherry.
3. Let it reduce until all liquid has evaporated and you are left with the tomato sauce sizzling in the oil.
4. Add passata and bubble.

To serve:

• Put the meatballs into an oven to table dish, pour over the tomato sauce and then put into the oven until it bubbles.
• Sprinkle with chopped parsley when you serve.

This freezes brilliantly if you want to do a large batch cook.

Serving suggestion: if you want to make it in to a warming supper, then add chickpeas or butter beans.

Other nice to knows…

Serves: 2-3
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Calories: 230 calories per helping

Like my albondigas recipe? For another quick, simple dish to start with, check out my take on a classic garlic prawn recipe.

Or, if you fancy coming to Vejer yourself to learn how it’s done first-hand, sign up to one of my upcoming cooking courses.