From tapas to lunch to dinner, Albondigas

Next time I'm going to travel with food blogger friends to a big city I will bring an empty suitcase! On our last morning in London I had to rush out after I tried to close my suitcase (yes I did the sitting and jumping on the lid thing) and buy another bag.... The suitcase was closed but that was about all you could say, I didn't even dare look at it for fear it would jump open! For safety reasons and balance I divided the contents (books and books and loaf pan(!)) between the two.

What can you expect? We joined Joanna at Joannas Food for a lunch at Books for Cooks in Notting Hill and had a blast. Instant rapport with each other, the customers and the super friendly staff, 'cause everyone that enters this shop is having at least one thing in common: love for cookbooks! Besides browsing and reading (oh and they know what we need, they even have a couch there!) and making our own not-so-secret stashes of books to buy, we had a -heavily photographed- wonderful lunch in the testkitchen's tiny restaurant. Of course all four of us bought the book that was test-cooked that day. (100 Great Tapas by Pippa Cuthbert). The next stop was the Spice Shop right across the road.... Another foodies paradise!

The first dinner I made once back home were the Spanish meatballs, or Albondigas. A simple yet elegant dish with clean pure flavours, easy to love by both adults and kids. Cooks for Books served this on Orzo, I cooked rigatoni and added blanched broccoli.

Recipe: (adapted from 100 great Tapas by Pippa Cuthbert)

250 gr. "half and half" ground beef (in Holland that's pork and beef)

250 gr. lean ground beef

1/2 ts chili flakes

2 garlic cloves, peeled and pressed

3 tbs fresh chopped parsley, divided

2 small onions, finely chopped

2-4 tbs flour

2 tbs olive oil

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

3 sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1/2 ts sweet paprika powder

700 gr tomato pulp/canned chopped tomatoes

2-3 very ripe tomatoes, chopped

salt and pepper

Mix both ground meats in a large bowl with chili flakes, garlic, parsley, half the chopped onion. Season generously with salt and pepper. Take heaped teaspoons of the mixture and shape into small walnut sized balls. Sprinkle flour on a plate and roll the balls on the plate to lightly coat with flour.

Heat 1 tbs of the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and fry the meatballs until brown all over, keep tossing and stirring. Once brown, transfer to a large ovenproof dish which holds the balls in a single layer. Heat remaining tbs oil in same pan and add onion, diced bell pepper and paprika powder, sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Stir in the passata and add tomatoes, bring to a boil and cook for a further 3 minutes. Season to taste. Pour sauce over the meatballs and cook, uncovered, in a preheated oven (190C/375F) for 30 minutes, turning once during cooking.

Serve as it is as tapas, on orzo like Books for Cooks did for lunch, couscous or Tarly will be nice as well. We had this for dinner with rigatoni and broccoli. Nice light red wine... Really good flavours and very child-friendly as well. A sure keeper!