Albóndigas de Pescado al Pesto

     I tried making these fish meatballs for the first time a couple of months ago to use some leftover fish I had.  The result was so good that I’ve been repeating them just the same way over and over.  The fish I used for this recipe is hake (it’s really small hake - pescadilla -) but you can make them with monkfish or probably tilapia or perch.

   The first time I made them I had baked the fish in the oven with some diced garlic and parsley and white wine.  The meatballs turned out really good so I haven’t changed the way I cook the fish!

 

    Here’s what you’ll need:

MATERIALS

-  Baking pan (to bake the fish)

-  Sauce pan to reduce the pesto sauce

-  Frying pan

-  Bowl to mix meatballs

-  Hand blender

INGREDIENTS

-  Three small hakes (about a pound of fish)

-  3 garlic cloves

-  2 tbsp of parsley

-  1 tbsp. of olive oil

-  1 cup of white wine

-  Salt

-  1 cup of bread

-  1 egg

-  ½ cup of flour

-  ½ cup of olive oil (to fry meatballs)

For the pesto sauce

-  Store bought pesto sauce

-  Milk

-  Juice from baked fish (white wine, parsley and garlic)

 HOW TO PREPARE IT

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Meanwhile chop the garlic and parsley and set aside.

2.  Arrange the fish in the baking pan and sprinkle with salt, garlic and parsley. Drizzle with olive oil and white wine.  Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes.  It is best if you cook the fish the day before making the meatballs so you don’t have to wait for the fish to bake and cool down.

3.  Once the fish is cooked, you can prepare the pesto sauce.  For this recipe, I like to use a lighter version of a pesto sauce so it doesn’t overtake the flavor of the fish meatballs.  Lighten up store bought pesto with some milk and some of the juices from the baked fish (wine, garlic and parsley).  Mix all ingredients with the hand blender (so the sauce is smooth) and simmer it down in a saucepan until you get the thickness of Alfredo’s sauce.

4.  Clean the fish from skin and bones and set the clean meat in a bowl.  Add the bread (previously soaked in water and squeezed) and some of the garlic and parsley.  Add one egg and mix thoroughly until mix is homogeneous.

5.  Preheat olive oil in a frying pan. Make the meatballs and coat them with flour before frying them.

6.  Fry meatballs until golden in color and set over paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

7.  Serve on individual spoons with sauce on top.

Enjoy!