Beef and Rice Meatballs

More About This Recipe

• Rice is a traditional dish in many Latin American and Caribbean countries. In Mexico, for example, families prepare whole pots of rice some two to three times a week. There’s a Mexican saying that goes, “Si sabes cómo hacer el arroz, ya te puedes casar.” In English, it would sound something like, “If you know how to cook rice, you’re ready to get married.” The idea is simple: if you know how to make rice, you can make almost anything. I remember that the first dish my mom taught me to cook was rice and vegetables, but that wasn’t the only thing I learned. I also learned that I could double the recipe to have leftovers for the next day. At home if we have extra rice, we usually make two things: either breakfast the next day with a fried egg and salsa over the top, or we would add it to meatballs to give them a lighter texture. And it’s precisely our meatball with tomato sauce recipe that I am sharing today. Each time I prepare this dish it reminds me of cold afternoons with family, where a hot plate of saucy meatballs would make us forget almost everything.