tapas

For the Romesco sauce, have a look at our recipe for Patatas Bravas.

The Meatballs

Fry off a finely chopped onion and clove of garlic, adding a couple of spoons of smoked spanish pimenton piccante and a couple of spoons of dulce paprika. After it has cooled, whack it in a bowl with half a cup of breakcrumbs, 1kg of good beef mince and about 400 grams of fresh, skinned chorizo. Mix well and form into medium sized balls and brown them. Heat the Romesco sauce in a saucepan, enough to cover the browned meatballs once you add them. You can add shredded parsley before serving. Simmer until you need to open another bottle of red, and serve with a good crusty loaf. This is a hearty dish, great with medium bodied reds like Tempranillo or Grenache and Patatas Bravas.

I don’t mind choking down a bit of tapas from time to time … Patatas bravas is pretty simple to make, especially if you make your own passata or tomato sauce at home.

The Passata

The key is to keep the flavours in the passata basic … onion and garlic and to reduce a lot so that the sauce is concentrated. Keep the heat to a simmer so as to retain flavour. No need to scoop the seeds out- but get rid of the skins. For the last half hour. Get the simmer as slow as possible and add as much fresh rosemary as you can (on the wood for easy removal) Bottle and freeze

The Spuds

Choose a spud that crisps up well with roasting but keeps the internal flesh nice and fluffy Cut into cubes of anywhere between 1 and 1.5 cm Put the cubes into a roasting tray, season with salt and white pepper, add plenty of olive oil and roast fairly hot until all sides are crispy Given I have a genuine 1970’s non fanforced oven I can’t really tell