Mexican Meatballs Simmered in Tomatillo Sauce with Black Olives

Name: Mexican Meatballs Simmered in Tomatillo Sauce with Black Olives
Yield: serves 4
Ingredients: 10 ounces tomatillos, husks removed; 1/4 small white or yellow onion, coarsely chopped; 1 1/2 cups water; 2 jalapeño chiles, coarsely cut up; 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems; Kosher salt; 2 tablespoons butter or ghee (see page 71); 1 pound Mexican Meatball Sausage (page 27), formed into walnut-size balls; 16 Kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped; About 16 fresh cilantro sprigs; 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar or fresh lime juice; Pinch of kosher salt

January 24, 2012

Tomatillos are a member of the nightshade family, which includes New World tomatoes and potatoes and such Old World relatives as eggplants. Although those wide-ranging kin have become familiar around the globe, tomatillos remain something of a country cousin, not much appreciated or grown outside Mexico and its neighbors to the south in Central and South America and to the north in California and the American Southwest. Tomatillos are an everyday must in Mexican cooking and dining, however, especially for one of Mexico’s great table sauces, salsa verde. Here the sauce, usually used as a dip for tortilla chips, becomes the medium for simmering meatballs. Make this recipe in summer, when tomatillos are in season. Canned versions are available, but they should be reserved for thickening chile verde and the like, much as okra is used in southern cooking.

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