Meatballs of ground meat, breadcrumbs and egg lowered into simmering broth, with potato and pasta cooked around them. Forty minutes and four bowls.
The meatballs were never going in
The first four steps of this recipe made meatballs: garlic crushed with salt, meat mixed with breadcrumbs, eggs and seasoning worked through, and the whole thing rolled into small balls.
Then the fifth step put broth on the heat, the sixth added potatoes and pasta, and the seventh added onion and cilantro and declared it ready. The meatballs are not mentioned again anywhere.
Anyone who followed the page exactly ended up with a pot of potato and pasta soup and a plate of raw meat sitting next to it. They now go in at the start of the sixth step, which is where the timings put them.
Lower them in and leave them
Meatballs are held together by egg and breadcrumb, and both need heat to set. Until they have set the ball is fragile, and there are two ways to lose it.
One is dropping them into liquid that is not yet simmering. Cold broth soaks in before it cooks and the ball disintegrates as it warms. Wait until the surface is moving.
The other is stirring. Give them two minutes untouched once they are in, and only then add the potatoes and the pasta and start moving things around. After that they are solid.
It is a thick soup
Six potatoes and eight and a half ounces of pasta, in six cups of broth, for four people. That is a lot of starch, and what comes out is closer to a stew than to a soup.
That is not necessarily wrong: it is a filling weekday lunch and it is meant to be substantial. But it is worth knowing before you start, because the pasta keeps drinking the broth after the pot comes off the heat and by the second day there is very little liquid left.
Half the pasta gives you something you can eat with a spoon and still have broth at the bottom of the bowl.
Onion and cilantro last
Both go in at the very end, with a minute or two left, and both are there for aroma rather than for body.
Finely chopped green onion and cilantro boiled for fifteen minutes give up everything they have and turn grey. Added at the end they are still green and still smell of themselves when the bowl reaches the table.
If you like more of them, keep some back and scatter it on top after serving.
More soups
- Chicken and rice soup — rice instead of pasta.
- Sopa de coditos — no meat.
- Sopa de fideos — with gizzards.
- Sopa de pasta — with chicken.
Sopa de Albóndigas FAQ
Five minutes in, once the broth is simmering. The recipe used to form them in the first four steps and then never mention them again, so anyone following it exactly ended up with a potato and pasta soup and a plate of raw meatballs.
Two reasons. They went into liquid that was not yet simmering, or they were stirred in the first two minutes. Wait for the bubbles, lower them in one by one, and leave them alone until they have set.
Breadcrumbs and two whisked eggs. If you have no breadcrumbs, a little wheat flour does the same job, which the recipe says.
Eight and a half ounces of pasta with six potatoes in six cups of broth is a lot of starch for four servings. Halve the pasta if you want something you can drink from a spoon.
Any of the three. A mix of beef and pork gives a softer meatball, because the pork fat keeps it from tightening.
Carrot is the usual addition and the recipe suggests it. Add it with the potatoes so it gets the full fifteen minutes.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground meat (beef, pork, or a mix)
- 6 cups beef broth or water
- 2 whisked eggs
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- Finely chopped green onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 8.8 oz. pasta of your choice (250 g; use less for a soup rather than a stew)
- 6 potatoes (diced)
- Chopped cilantro to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
Notas
- Meatballs dropped into water that is not yet simmering fall apart, and stirred in the first two minutes they do the same. Wait for the bubbles, lower them in, and leave them alone.
- You can add carrot as well, if you like it.
- Eight and a half ounces of pasta with six potatoes in six cups of broth makes a very thick soup, closer to a stew. Use half the pasta if you want something you can drink from a spoon.
Instructions
- Crush the garlic cloves with a pinch of salt, or chop them finely.
- In a bowl, mix the ground meat with the breadcrumbs. If you have none, a little wheat flour does the same job.
- Add the whisked eggs, the garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and mix well.
- Roll the mixture into small meatballs.
- Put the broth or water in a pot over medium-high heat.
- After 5 minutes, when it is simmering, lower the meatballs in one by one and leave them two minutes without stirring so they set. Then add the potatoes and the pasta.
- After 15 minutes, add the finely chopped onion and the cilantro. Give it another minute or two and it is ready. Serve hot.
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