Rick Stein cooks up some delicious Spanish tapas that are simple to make.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

For the meatballs

50g crustless white bread
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
150g thinly sliced serrano ham
350g lean minced pork
350g minced veal or chicken
3 garlic cloves, crushed
50g pitted green olives, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped fl at-leaf parsley
¼ tsp pimentón picante (smoked hot Spanish paprika)
4 tbsp olive oil

For the sauce:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp pimentón, sweet or hot
2 400g cans of chopped tomatoes
200ml fino sherry or dry white wine
2 fresh bay leaves
200ml chicken stock
Salt

Method

1. Break the bread into a small bowl and sprinkle with the lemon
juice and one tablespoon of water. Leave to soak for five minutes. Drop
the sliced serrano ham into a food processor and process using
the pulse button, until finely chopped.

2. Lightly squeeze the excess moisture from the bread and put
it into a mixing bowl with the minced pork and minced veal or
chicken, serrano ham, garlic, olives, parsley, lemon zest, pimentón
and one teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Mix together well with your
hands then take a little piece of the mixture and fry it in a drop of
oil, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Form the mixture
into about 60 small, tapas-sized meatballs.
 
3. Heat half the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
Add half the meatballs to the pan and fry for 2–3 minutes, shaking
the pan every now and then, until nicely browned all over. Lift them
out onto a plate and set to one side. Repeat with the remainder of
the meatballs, using the rest of the olive oil.

4. For the sauce, heat the oil in the frying pan, add the onion, garlic
and pimentón and fry gently for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes,
sherry, bay leaves, chicken stock and ½ teaspoon of salt and simmer
for 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced and thickened.

5. Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer for five minutes until
cooked through.

To serve

Remove and discard the bay leaves, spoon the meatballs and sauce into several small shallow dishes and serve while still warm with some cocktail sticks alongside.