OK, so this just looks like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. You're probably thinking that I was just too tired to cook Mexican food last night, so I defrosted a some meatballs out of a frozen plastic bag from Costco, poured some Ragu spaghetti sauce over them, served them up on a plate, and then took a picture while trying to think up some original Mexican name for them.
Partially true. I was tired last night, and these were frozen meatballs - albóndigas in Spanish - but they were prepared from a recipe I got from Lupita in Morelia, México in 2005. I made a huge amount of them at the end of the summer, so we froze half of them. And, yes, we did have to think up a name for them, ALBONDIGAS PICANTES, because I don't think Lupita called them anything special beyond albóndigas.
But, here's what's special about this recipe: the albóndigas have a little bit of chopped mint leaves in them, and the sauce is a rich tomato sauce flavored with chipotle chiles.
After our experience earlier in the week with frozen sauce (the tomatillo sauce that we served over chicken that I didn't think had much flavor) I was almost afraid to go this route again. Last night's dinner was great, and very picante - just the way we like it.
I will always remember the day that Lupita made this dish: I had been suffering from a migraine that morning, so her daughter went to the pharmacy and got me some pills that were just for migraines. I took them (I would have taken anything at that point to stop the pain), fell asleep all morning, and when I woke up, the migraine was gone. I went downstairs and Lupita and her family had already eaten, but she'd saved me some of the spaghetti and meatballs in this hot & spicy sauce. This is just one of several recipes she gave me that summer, and I will be posting others as this progresses.
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