Il Pomodoro: Pizza Mexicano

The Pomodoro chiringuito (beach bar) and pizzería at Vera-Playa, Andalucía, Spain; at the right (south) end of the naturist zone (El Playazo beach).

A very nice pizza – I enjoyed it. 12 €. Tomato sauce, mozzarella, minced beef, onion, and hot sauce on a thin artisanal crust; nice and picante.

Good char too from their wood burning oven.

It had a little too much salt and I’m sure there could be a better quality mozzarella cheese. For those trying this at home remember that spicy foods require less salt than usual to bring out the flavor; the spiciness perks it up instead.

I’ll be back - to try the margherita pizza so that I can check out the tomato and cheese quality without the distraction of all the extra stuff.

After lunch you can take a walk on the beach to burn those extra calories; or have a siesta on a lounge under one of the sun umbrellas in front of the bar.

View from the Pomodoro

Click for panorama shot

The view from the pizzería on the beach a couple of hundred yards from my place. More about that later.

Albondigas de Iberica : Iberian Meatballs

With rice. These meatballs are made from the meat of Iberian pigs; the ones they use to make Iberian Ham (much better than Italian Prosciutto).

I hope I find the other phone-cam soon or I’m going to have to invest in some new equipment; the pictures with this substitute phone-cam suck.

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Albondigas de Iberica : Iberian Meatballs

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 T lard (real lard)
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 cup ham/beef broth
• 1/2 C dry white wine
• pepper
• 2 T olive oil
• 500 gr [1#] Iberian meatballs (oh my! they were bought ready made)
• 1/4 C dry white wine
• 2 T tomato sauce
• 1/2 C ham/beef broth

Procedure

1. Melt lard in a pan
2. Chop the veggies and garlic and toss into the hot lard
• Medium heat, to soften the onions and until just picking up some color
3. Add the wine (deglaze if needed and add the up of broth
• Until the carrots are really soft
4. Meanwhile, brown the meatballs in the olive oil
5. Remove the browned meatballs and deglaze with the 1/4 C white wine
6. Puree the carrot/onion mix with a stick blender
7. Put the sauce into the meatball pan, season with pepper
8. Add the tomato sauce, meatballs and the bayleaf
• If needed add some ham/beef broth to make sure they’re 3/4 covered and that the sauce isn’t too thick
9. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes (to cook the meatballs and blend flavours)

Done

Notes

1. Use lard. It really does add something to the flavour
2. I used artisanal, handmade, Iberian pork meatballs; faster than making them myself.
3. Stick-blend the sauce until it’s really fine. This could take a minute or two.
4. Served with rice: 2 parts rice to 2 parts ham/beef broth, 1 part wine and 1 part water
5. This kind of sauce can be used with all sorts of dishes (substitute fish broth for fish dishes or veggie broth for vegetarian dishes). The basic idea of a carrot/onion/tomato sauce is very versatile and it makes a great base to braise things in.

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