Vanesa Romero gives us two of her traditional recipes with an original twist

Autumn has started with a movie premiere, Bitcoin Hotelwhere he shares the bill with Marta Hazas and Alejo Sauras, At the end of the year he will shoot his second short filmafter the success of a shit day. “I’m also writing my third bookwhich will be a novel”, advances a delighted Vanesa Romerowhich with its chosen recipes combat nostalgia for their homelandAlicante, and his family.

© FERNANDO JUNCO

-Do you consider yourself ‘cookies’?

-Those dishes that I like to cook turn out well. One of my achievements is making the version healthy of many recipes. I am guided by my intuition, and I like to experiment and mix ingredients to see what happens.

-What is your specialty?

-Salmon al papillote. I also make a very rich chocolate marble cake with healthy ingredients.

“I love cinnamon and one day I told my mother that we could put it in the meatballs. Since then, it has not been missing from the recipe”

-Why have you chosen these two recipes?

-The one with meatballs in sauce comes from several generations: my great-grandmother taught it to my grandmother, my grandmother to my mother and my mother to me. The idea of ​​adding cinnamon arose spontaneously. I have always liked this spice and, one day, I told my mother that we could add it (at that time I used it for everything). She accepted and the result was spectacular. Since then, there is no shortage of cinnamon in the family meatball recipe. As for fideuá, it is my father’s favorite dish, and whenever we siblings who live abroad get together, my mother cooks it. It reminds me of those moments of celebration and being together.

-What is your best childhood memory associated with gastronomy?

-The paparajotas that my grandmother made for us for a snack every time we went to visit her. I worked the dough as if they were pancakes, then I fried them and added sugar. Delicious.

Fideuá with cuttlefish, tuna, shrimp and clams

© Juan and Mariana Nazábal

Preparation time: 60 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 400 g of noodles no. 2
• 1 kg of whitebait fish (or galley fish)
• 1/2 onion
• 200 g canned natural tomatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of ñora pulp
• 1/2 unit of cuttlefish, diced
• 1/2 tuna steak
• 125 g peeled shrimp
• 125 g of clams
• salt
• virgin olive oil
• parsley

Preparation

1. First of all, you have to make the fish broth. Pour olive oil into a deep saucepan and fry half an onion until golden brown, to add flavor. Remove it and sauté the whitebait in that same oil. Add the onion and tomato again, cover with water and let everything cook for 20 minutes over low heat, occasionally eliminating the impurities that form on the surface. Strain the fumet and reserve it.
2. In the paella, add a little oil, sauté the noodles, take them out and set aside. In that same oil, perhaps adding a little more if you need it, sauté the finely chopped garlic, along with the cuttlefish and diced tuna. Add the reserved noodles and cover everything with the fumet (it should be a little above half of the paella). Season to taste. Set the heat very high until it boils; At that time, put it down. When almost half of the broth has been consumed, add the shrimp and clams. Adjust the salt and move the paella. At the end, add the parsley.
3. When serving, you can accompany it, if you want, with a little aioli sauce.

Meatballs in sauce with a touch of cinnamon

© Juan and Mariana Nazábal

Preparation time: 60 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 350 g minced beef
• 300 g minced pork
• 2 cloves of garlic
• parsley
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 200 ml white wine
• 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs
• 500 g crushed tomato
• salt
• white pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• cinnamon to taste
• virgin olive oil

Elaboration

1. Put the minced meat in a bowl and add the egg, the parsley and the finely chopped garlic, a tablespoon of milk, another tablespoon of white wine and a teaspoon of breadcrumbs. Season with salt. Mix well and knead so that all the ingredients are integrated (if the mixture is too dry or, on the contrary, very juicy, you can adjust it with a little more breadcrumbs, wine or milk).
2. Form the meatballs with the help of a spoon. Ideally, they should not be too big or too small. Once you have them done, dredge them in flour, tapping them with your hand to remove the excess. Pour a good splash of olive oil into the pan and, when it is over high heat, fry them in batches to seal them (they should be golden).
3. Take them out and place them in a clean saucepan.
4. For the sauce, brown a finely chopped onion and carrot in clean oil. Add a tablespoon of flour and, immediately, the crushed tomato. Beat everything, adding some water. Put this sauce plus half a glass of white wine, peppercorns, two bay leaves and a pinch of cinnamon in the meatball casserole. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and salt.
5. Let it cook for 20-30 minutes and the dish will be ready.

Your favorites

• A sweet sin: The donuts
• Best gastro plan: Go for tapas with friends and enjoy a good wine
• Two healthy recipes: One is the mango salad with avocado, cherry tomatoes, lamb’s lettuce, pistachios and macadamia nuts. The other, healthy donuts with oats, banana, cinnamon, apple, egg and chocolate
• Favorite food: The Asian
• A place to celebrate: Tse Yang restaurant, in Madrid, a classic in my life