Monday Spanish

Last night I did a couple of recipes from Penelope Casas.

The main course, from a tapas recipe in Tapas, was Tuna Balls in Wine Sauce. I stuck to the recipe reasonably closely. Deviations were to use Spanish tuna packed in oil (instead of water) and fish stock instead of chicken stock. We had a partial loaf of fantastic rye bread that we got in Brig this weekend, so I used a slice from that to make the bread crumbs. I figured that the tuna could stand up to the additional body of the rye bread. Since I used fresh bread crumbs, I used half again as much as the recipe called for.

To go with the meatballs I also made Baked Rice from the recipe in La Cocina de Mama.

Both dishes were excellent.

Wine: Cicero 2005 Mattmann Pinot Noir. This was the wine we had at Lampart's and it was just as good at home as it was in the restaurant. There was the added bonus of one of those synergistic magic-pairing effects between the wine and the rice. I'm not sure if it was the saffron, the thyme, or the entire dish, but the combination was fantastic.