Mexican meatballs
Surprisingly, this authentic meatball recipe from north western Mexico contains no chillies§. A Chilli sauce such as Salsa de chile a la Jalapa should of course accompany this dish!
The trick to these is to slow cook them.
§ Miguelmartinez from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, suggests adding some chipotole chillies to the mix to make it redder and tastier.
| Mexican meatballs | |
|---|---|
 |
| Meatball ingredients, the massive egg turned out to be a double yolker. | |
| Servings: | Serves 6 |
| Calories per serving: | 512 |
| Ready in: | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Prep. time: | 20 minutes |
| Cook time: | 1 hour 10 minutes |
| Difficulty: | 
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| Recipe author: | Chef |
| First published: | 17th January 2013 |
|
Best recipe reviewGorgeous with spaghetti! 4.8/5 Love the spices in these. I should have been born a Mexican! |
Ingredients
Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩🍳 method for this recipe
- Meatballs
- 1.5 tablespoons long grain rice (white)
- 340 g (12 oz) minced pork
- 340 g (12 oz) minced beef
- 180 g courgettes
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ teaspoon Mexican oregano
- ¼ teaspoon white cumin seeds, crushed
- 8 peppercorns, crushed
- 3 big sprigs of fresh mint, stalks removed
- ¾ teaspoons sea salt
- 85 ml finely chopped onion (1 small onion)
- Sauce
- 1 400g can tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 250 ml finely chopped onion (2 medium onions)
- 2 fat Cloves of garlic peeled and crushed
- 900 ml chicken stock or vegetable stock
Mise en place
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24 meatballs, ready to simmer
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With tortillas and pasta shells!
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Mexican meatballs with spaghetti
Method
- If the pork and beef is not very finely minced, blitz for 10 seconds in a food processor with a metal blade for a fine blend
- Trim the courgettes or squash and chop very finely
- Add the chopped squash, the beaten eggs and the remaining meatball ingredients to the meat and mix well with your hands until smooth
- Make 24 meatballs (about 4 cm diameter)
- In a large pan, heat the oil and fry the onions and garlic until softened, about 4 minutes.
- Briefly pulse the tomatoes in a food processor, you don't want a complete puree. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil, cook and reduce for 4 minutes, stirring often
- Add the stock to the tomatoes and once simmering, add the meatballs
- Cover the pan and simmer for one hour
Serving suggestions
Serve in bowls with plenty of sauce, a Chili pepper sauce and toasted corn tortillas.
Chef's notes
For this dish I used pork tenderloin fillet pulsed to a fine mince in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. A fattier cut such as shoulder would probably be better in meatballs, but was not available in the quantity I needed.
I made this over two days in two batches. The first time I added a few pasta shells in the last 10 minutes and served it with lightly fried corn tortillas. The second time, with spaghetti. Both were equally good, though I may opt to thicken the sauce a little next time.
Variations
Use pumpkin, butternut squash etc instead of the courgettes. I would think squash may need par boiling for 10 minutes first.
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