Spanish Meatballs & Garlicky Greenbeans

Have you been watching Spain:  On the Road Again?  When I saw Mario Batalli with Gwynneth Paltrow in the recent issue of Food & Wine,  I thought, huh.  Okay.  And then I looked at the recipes since that's what life is all about, right?  All that olive oil and garlic...potatoes and rice.

Mmm-Hmmm.

I have found out that at least in San Diego, PBS is running the series  in the middle of the night, so I have set my DVR and have begun to live vicariously through the Foodie Foursome which includes Mark Bittman and a lovely Spanish actress I've not seen before, Claudia Bassols.  Oh, to be cruising through Spain in a caravan of expensive German cars.  Hell.  Just cruising through Spain.  The countryside is gorgeous, and the cooking seriously simple.  I'm loving the entire experience.  In fact, I've ordered the book since my Penelope Casas' La Cocina de Mama has been getting quite the workout lately.

In fact, recently, we had meatballs and I'm left wondering why I never had meatballs when we lived in Spain.  There were meatballs?

I don't think Gordon Ramsay would yell too loudly at me over this one.  You know.  The chef who wrote the book I'm giving away if you've commented and sent in a recipe.  If you can't remember, then click the book on the left.  Time is seriously running out, and if I can't scrape together a decent spread to celebrate my 100,000 visitor which happened yesterday, well.  Get those recipes and photos in everyone.  Everybody needs another cookbook -- especially a big pretty one that's FREE.

Where was I?

Spanish Meatballs and Greenbeans, that's where.  It has comfort food written all over it.

First, the meatballs...

3 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 white onion, chopped fine
1/2 bell pepper, chopped fine
1/4 lb. roma tomatoes, grated (see below)
1-lb mix of very lean ground meat
1-1/2 tsp. salt
3 lg. eggs
3 T dried fine bread crumbs
flour for dusting

And the sauce for the meatballs...

1/4 white onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped fine
1 tsp. flour
1 T tomato sauce
1/4 c. white wine
1 c chicken or veggie broth
Salt & Pepper

To make the meatballs, first heat 1 T of olive oil in a skillet and saute the garlic, onion, and bell pepper slowly over low heat, stirring until softened and very aromatic, but do not brown them.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Cut a small piece from the tomato, and grate coarsely over a medium sized bowl to catch the juices and pulp. Discard the remaining piece of skin.  Add the ground meat to the tomato with salt and pepper, 1 egg, and bread crumbs.  With your hands, squeeze the ingredients together to mix well, and shape into balls about 1 to 1-1/2 inches in size.

Mix remaining egg in a small bowl, and have a plate ready with the flour.  Heat remaining 2T olive oil in the same skillet you browned the veggies in, and roll each meatball first in the flour until covered, then dunk in the eggs.  Immediately put in the skillet to saute until browned on all sides.  When brown, remove to a platter to reserve.

To make the sauce, in the same skillet add the second batch of chopped onions, garlic, and bell pepper, sauteeing them slowly until soft.  Stir in the flour, tomato sauce, wine, broth, and season to taste.  Cover the skillet and slowly simmer the sauce about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Transfer meatballs to the sauce, stirring gently, and cover, cooking until meatballs are cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Now for the greenbeans...

1 white onion, sliced thick
2 sprigs flat leafed parsley
4 cloves garlic (2 whole, 2 sliced)
3 T olive oil
1 lb greenbeans, trimmed
2 thick slices day old French bread, cubed
2 tsp. red wine vinegar

In a medium saucepan, place the onion parsley, whole garlic and 1 T olive oil to boil in salted water.  After it boils, add the greenbeans and simmer until crisp tender about 10 minutes.  When they're done, drain them through a fine meshed strainer and reserve.

While the beans are cooking, heat a bit of the olive oil in a skillet and saute the bread cubes until they're golden brown, shaking pan occasionally to brown all sides of cubes.  Remove to a plated lined with paper towels.

Add the remaining olive oil to the same skillet and add the sliced garlic, stirring until fragrant and beginning to brown.  Add the greenbean mixture to the skillet, stirring to mix onions and garlic with the greenbeans.  Sprinkle the vinegar over and toss briefly, then pour onto a platter.  Add the browned bread cubes to the platter, and serve.

Notes:

• These meatballs would be perfect for tapas.
• Any ground meat would be good for the meatballs as long as it's very lean.  I used veal and pork and the flavor was very nice.
• Although the chopped veggies in the meatballs is great, they're also good without the onion and bellpepper, or with other veggie combos.  Spanish food isn't spicy, but I'd be hard pressed not to want to add some heat to these.  Even if it was dried red pepper flakes.  Some roasted jalapeno?  Mmmm....
• Making meatballs has always been tedious for me.  Even the melon baller doesn't make it fun -- but if you make sure your hands are wet before you begin to form the balls, it certainly does make the job much less messy.
• When you brown the balls, they get a bit flat here and there if you don't watch them.  Brown them until they're almost done inside.
• Use tongs when dipping the balls in the egg.  Otherwise, you'll have more coating on your fingers than the balls.
• For the green beans, broad and flat are also fine.  The cooking time may need to be lengthened, though.
• Very easy, yummy dish!