Get a Taste of the Holidays with this Sopa de Galets Recipe
Everyone knows that the holidays are about delicious food, and plenty of it. One dish that’s on every table on Christmas in Catalonia is sopa de galets, a tasty soup with noodles and meatballs. Who could resist a hearty bowl of pasta and meatballs? Not us! We’re sharing our favorite recipe with you, straight from iaia‘s kitchen, so that you can enjoy this Catalan specialty this Christmas, too!
About sopa de galets
Photo by Jordi Domènech i Arnau on Trend hype / CC BY-SA
Sopa de galets is a dish that is an integral part of Catalan cuisine during the holidays. Catalans usually enjoy this comforting soup as the first course of the big Christmas Day lunch. There are a few different ways to prepare this soup, so there are variations on the recipe. The broth is a delicious mix of vegetables and meats, and there are always galets, or shell-shaped noodles. Sopa de galets can be prepared in one of the following ways:
- Broth with pasta
- Broth with pasta and meatballs. There can be a few small meatballs in each dish, or one big meatball, a pilota, or ball in Catalan.
- Galets stuffed with meat instead of meatballs in the broth.
See more: Pulpo a la Gallega: a Classic Spanish Octopus Recipe
What you’ll need
In this sopa de galets recipe, we are going to stuff the galets with meat. These are the ingredients that you will need to make the broth and prepare the meat from scratch.
For the broth:
- 5L of water to boil
- 1 pig’s foot
- 1 ham bone
- 250g of beef bones
- 250g of pork back bones
- 1/2 chicken with bones
- 100g of Iberian bacon or unsmoked bacon or ham
- 2 carrots
- 2 leeks
- 2 potatoes
- 2 stalks of celery with leaves
- 1/2 cabbage
- 2 onions
For the meatballs:
- 125g ground beef
- 125g lean ground pork
- 1 egg
- 2 cloves of garlic
- breadcrumbs
- salt and pepper
- 400g of galets shell pasta
How to make it
Photo by toniher on Trend hype / CC BY-SA
The first step in this sopa de galets recipe is to prepare the stock. Keep in mind that it needs to cook for a few hours to maximize the flavor, so make sure to plan ahead!
- Wash and peel the vegetables for the stock and cut them into chunks. Put them in a large pot with the meat and water and bring to a boil.
- Once the water starts boiling, you’ll notice a white foam appear on the surface. Scrape this foam off; it’s excess from the meat and bones and you don’t want it in your broth. Next, add salt and let the stock cook for about 2.5 hours.
- While the stock is simmering away, it’s time to prepare the meat mixture. In a large bowl, mix the ground meat, minced garlic, egg, some breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Knead the mixture together until all the ingredients are mixed in well.
- At this point, you need to start stuffing the galets with the meatball mixture. This sopa de galets recipe isn’t difficult, just a bit time consuming! Take a bit of meat and fill each shell, as you can see in the photo above. You will probably need to use a small spoon or a piping bag to help you with this part.
- Once the stock has finished, strain out the vegetables, meat and bones and set them aside. Next, drop in the galets. Let them cook for 18-20 minutes over medium heat so that the meat cooks through but the pasta doesn’t overcook or break.
- Once the galets are thoroughly cooked through, serve and enjoy!
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