Meatballs in carrot sauce

I would say that meatballs are not as fashionable as they used to be; perhaps they seem too laborious in these times of immediacy, but these meatballs in carrot sauce , besides being succulent, are made in a moment if you get the whole family to help. And also, forming the meatballs will give you the zen moment of the week. I swear by Snoopy.

Meatballs are one of many inventions to use up leftovers. It must be said that it is not necessary to prepare them with beef tenderloin, since they are perfect with less noble meats and you can add leftover sausages, for example. Like all stews, they can be made in large quantities, if you want, and frozen for a rainy day, as the Anglo-Saxons say. It is fashionable to cook one day for the whole week. And no, I am not going to pronounce the name of this activity in English. It is what my grandmother did, she cooked for the week, she was very modern.

The recipe is by Martín Berasategui , a guarantee of quality. It requires the use of a good meat broth; if you use homemade, even better. And if it is a concentrated stock, I won't even tell you.

Revol round porcelain plates and De Buyer stainless steel spoon

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

• 100 g onion
• 100 g leek
• 40 ml of extra virgin olive oil
• 750 g minced beef
• 250 g of minced Iberian pork shoulder
• 20 g egg yolk
• 50 g whole egg
• 1 tsp dried garlic or garlic salt
• A few sprigs of chopped parsley
• 1 slice of bread without crust, soaked in a little milk
• Flour for coating
• Salt and pepper

For the carrot sauce:

• 2 chopped onions
• 20 g crushed garlic
• 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil
• 500 g of diced carrot
• 500 ml sweet white wine (muscat, white port, etc.)
• Meat broth, whatever it takes
• Salt

Revol round porcelain plates and De Buyer stainless steel spoon

Preparation

1. We put the bread in the milk so that it soaks.
2. Finely chop the onion and leek. Sauté in olive oil until transparent. Drain the oil.
3. Put all the ingredients for the meatball dough in a salad bowl with the sofrito and mix well until a soft but consistent dough is formed.
4. We form walnut-sized balls, coat them in flour and fry them in olive oil until they turn golden brown on the outside. We set them aside.
5. For the sauce, chop the onion. You can put it in the microwave to remove the vegetation water, for at least 10 minutes at maximum power until it starts to become transparent. Put it in a frying pan with the bottom covered in olive oil and finish sautéing it.
6. Add the crushed garlic, stir a few times and add the chopped carrot and white wine. Evaporate all the wine.
7. Add the broth and cook for half an hour or as long as necessary for the carrots to become tender. Blend with a blender to obtain a fairly smooth sauce. Add salt to taste.
8. We add the meatballs to the sauce and let them simmer for a final 10 minutes. It is a good idea to let the stew rest until the next day so that the flavours can settle.

The combination of sweet wine and the sweetness of carrots gives a wonderful touch to the sauce of these meatballs. You can dip bread in it without stopping.