About This Dish

These meatballs with romesco sauce and feta are a single serve dinner that takes four meatballs from the prepable beef meatball batch and serves them over a bold, smoky, homemade romesco — a Spanish-inspired sauce made by blending jarred roasted red peppers, blanched almonds, garlic, sherry or red wine vinegar and fresh basil into something thick, textured and deeply flavoured. Green beans are fried alongside the meatballs until just tender, and the whole thing is finished with crumbled feta and fresh herbs, with crusty bread for scooping. It is one of the most elegant dinners in the More Ways Than One meatball series — simple to put together, genuinely impressive on the plate, and ready in around 20 minutes once your meatball prep is done.

Why I Created This Recipe

Every time I eat or make romesco I'm reminded of what a brilliant sauce it is, and one that I don't use enough! Though I have my reservations about small plates in a restaurant, this dish does feel reminiscent of that vibe of food, with the sauce spread on bottom of the plate and the meatballs, beans and feta piled on top, and I can't lie it feels like a special meal to make for yourself! It is one of those sauces that sounds far more involved than it actually is: everything goes into a blender, a minute later you have something that tastes like it came from a very good restaurant, and the washing up is a single blender jug.

The combination of smoky roasted red peppers, toasted almonds and a splash of sherry vinegar gives the sauce a complexity that works beautifully with the richness of the meatballs, and the feta on top adds a salty, creamy contrast that ties everything together. This is the fourth and final recipe in the More Ways Than One meatball series, and I think it is a very good way to end the week.

About the More Ways Than One Series

More Ways Than One is a series on One Pot, One Portion built around ingredient prep — making one base recipe at the start of the week and using it to create four completely different meals without any of the repetition of traditional batch cooking. This is the fifth instalment, and the base recipe is the prepable beef meatball batch. The four recipes in this edition are meatballs with romesco sauce and feta (you are here), garlic honey soy meatballs, roasted red pepper and mozzarella meatball orzo, and Thai red curry meatball noodle soup. Make the meatball batch once and you have four genuinely different dinners ready to go.

What Is Romesco Sauce?

Romesco is a classic Catalan sauce originating from the Tarragona region of Spain, traditionally made with roasted or raw tomatoes, roasted red peppers, toasted nuts — most commonly almonds, hazelnuts or a combination of both — garlic, olive oil and vinegar. It is thick, smoky, slightly nutty and deeply savoury, and it is one of the most versatile sauces in Spanish cooking, traditionally served alongside grilled fish, vegetables and — most famously — calcots, the sweet spring onions (scallions) that are grilled over an open flame in Catalonia every winter.

This version keeps the spirit of the original firmly intact — roasted red peppers, blanched almonds, garlic, olive oil, fresh basil and sherry or red wine vinegar — but skips the tomatoes in favour of a slightly simpler, more pepper-forward sauce that takes about two minutes to make in a blender. The result is bold, smoky and complex in a way that is completely disproportionate to the effort involved.

Why You'll Want to Make This Recipe

Single Serve

This is a perfectly portioned single serve dinner using exactly four meatballs from the prepable beef meatball batch. Everything here — the romesco quantity, the green beans, the feta — is measured for one, with nothing left over and nothing wasted.

A Sauce Worth Knowing

Romesco is one of the most useful sauces to have in your repertoire. It takes minutes to make, keeps in the fridge for several days, and works with almost everything — grilled vegetables, fish, chicken, eggs, crusty bread. Making it as part of this recipe is a genuinely good reason to always have jarred roasted red peppers and a bag of blanched almonds in the cupboard.

No Cook Sauce, Minimal Washing Up

The romesco requires no cooking whatsoever — everything goes raw into the blender and comes out as a finished sauce. The only cooking involved is frying the meatballs and green beans. One pan, one blender, and dinner is done.

The Perfect End to the Week

This is the fourth and final recipe in the More Ways Than One meatball edition — a fitting way to use the last four meatballs from the batch. It feels a little more occasion-worthy than the others, which makes it a natural choice for a Friday night when you want something that feels special without any real effort.

A Note on Romesco Sauce

Traditional romesco varies considerably from cook to cook and region to region — some versions include tomatoes, some use hazelnuts, some are quite smooth and others are deliberately rustic and chunky. The version here is intentionally straightforward: roasted red peppers, blanched almonds, garlic, olive oil, sherry or red wine vinegar and fresh basil, blended to a sauce that is mostly smooth with a little texture remaining.

A few things worth knowing:

The vinegar is important — it cuts through the richness of the almonds and olive oil and gives the sauce its characteristic brightness. Sherry vinegar is the more traditional choice and gives a slightly deeper, more complex result; red wine vinegar is a perfectly good substitute with a slightly sharper edge. Either works well here.

Blanched almonds give a cleaner, creamier result than skin-on almonds, which can make the sauce slightly bitter. If you only have skin-on almonds, they will work, but blanched is noticeably better.

The sauce should have some texture — not completely smooth like a hummus, but not chunky either. A few pulses rather than a continuous blitz gives you more control over the final consistency.

My Top Tips for the Perfect Meatballs with Romesco Sauce & Feta

• Make the romesco first and let it sit while you cook the meatballs. Even five or ten minutes of resting allows the flavours to develop and meld — the garlic softens slightly, the vinegar integrates, and the sauce tastes noticeably rounder than it does straight out of the blender.
• Use blanched almonds rather than skin-on. The skin contains tannins that can make the sauce taste slightly bitter, particularly when raw. Blanched almonds give a cleaner, creamier, more neutral base that lets the pepper and vinegar flavours come through clearly.
• Taste the romesco before you serve it and adjust as needed. If it tastes flat, add a few more drops of vinegar. If it tastes too sharp, a small extra drizzle of olive oil will round it out. If it needs more depth, a tiny extra pinch of salt will bring everything forward.
• Use the full 1 tbsp of olive oil in the romesco. It is what gives the sauce its body and glossy, emulsified consistency — do not be tempted to reduce it.
• Fry the meatballs over a medium heat for the full 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Because these meatballs are going into a cold sauce rather than finishing in a hot liquid, they need to be almost completely cooked through in the pan before the green beans go in. Check by pressing one gently — it should feel firm with just a very slight give in the centre.
• Add the green beans to the same pan as the meatballs rather than cooking them separately. They pick up the flavour from the meatball juices and the sesame oil in the pan, which makes them taste far better than beans cooked in plain water.
• Spoon the romesco generously across the plate before plating the meatballs — you want a proper base of sauce that the meatballs sit in rather than a small smear. The bread is there to scoop up every last bit of it.
• Crumble the feta rather than slicing it. Irregular pieces melt slightly into the warm meatballs and sauce and distribute more evenly than neat cubes. Do not be shy with it — the salty creaminess of the feta is one of the best things about this dish.
• Crusty bread is not optional here. The romesco is too good to leave on the plate, and bread is the right vehicle for getting every last bit of it. A good sourdough or a simple baguette are both excellent choices.

Ingredients and Tools You'll Need

Essential Ingredients

• 1 tbsp (3 tsp) extra virgin olive oil – for the romesco sauce; gives it body and a glossy, emulsified consistency
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil – for frying the meatballs and green beans
• 1½ jarred roasted red peppers – the sweet, smoky base of the romesco; rinse briefly if packed in oil
• 1 small clove of garlic – raw in the sauce, so use a small clove; a large one can overwhelm
• 30g blanched almonds – gives the romesco its characteristic nutty body; blanched rather than skin-on for the best flavour
• 1 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar – sherry vinegar for a deeper, more traditional result; red wine vinegar for a slightly sharper alternative
• 5g fresh basil – adds a fresh, aromatic note to the sauce
• 70g green beans, trimmed – adds freshness and bite alongside the richness of the romesco; fine green beans or French beans (haricots verts) work particularly well
• 4 beef meatballs – from the prepable beef meatball batch; take them out of the fridge 10–15 minutes before cooking
• Salt and black pepper – to season both the sauce and the meatballs and green beans

To Serve

• 20g feta, crumbled – salty and creamy; an essential contrast to the smoky richness of the romesco
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley (Italian parsley) or extra basil – scattered over just before serving
• Crusty bread – for scooping up the romesco; a good sourdough or baguette is ideal

Essential Tools

• Blender or food processor — for the romesco sauce
• 1 frying pan — for the meatballs and green beans
• Knife and chopping board
• Serving plate or shallow bowl — wide enough to spoon the romesco across as a base

Make-Ahead & Storage: The Romesco Sauce

One of the best things about romesco is how well it keeps — and for solo cooks, that makes it an especially useful sauce to have in the fridge.

Storing in the Fridge

Leftover romesco keeps well in a sealed container in the fridge for up to four days. It will thicken slightly as it sits — loosen with a small drizzle of olive oil and a stir before serving. The flavour actually improves

‍Ways to Use Leftover Romesco

The sauce is incredibly versatile well beyond this recipe. A few ideas:

• Spread thickly on toast and top with a fried egg for a brilliant quick lunch
• Serve alongside grilled or roasted vegetables — it is particularly good with asparagus, courgette (zucchini) and cauliflower
• Use as a dip for crudités or alongside warm pitta bread (pita bread)
• Toss through warm pasta with a handful of rocket (arugula) and some extra feta
• Serve alongside grilled fish or chicken in place of a more conventional sauce

Dietary Variations

Gluten-Free

This recipe is naturally gluten-free as written — just ensure the meatball batch was made with gluten-free breadcrumbs, and serve with gluten-free bread.

Dairy-Free

Replace the feta with a dairy-free feta alternative, or simply leave it out and finish with an extra drizzle of good olive oil and a pinch of flaked sea salt instead. The romesco itself contains no dairy.

Vegan / Vegetarian

The recipe is built around the prepable beef meatball batch and is not suitable for vegans or vegetarians as written. However, the romesco is an outstanding sauce for roasted vegetables — try it with roasted cauliflower, aubergine (eggplant) and courgette (zucchini) in place of the meatballs for a fully plant-based version that is genuinely worth making in its own right.

Different Nuts

Blanched almonds are the recommended choice here, but a 50/50 mix of blanched almonds and blanched hazelnuts is a more traditional romesco combination and gives a slightly richer, more complex flavour. Toasted pine nuts also work well for a softer, more delicate result.

Adding Heat

A small pinch of dried chilli flakes (red pepper flakes) blended into the romesco adds a gentle heat that works very well alongside the smokiness of the peppers. A quarter of a fresh red chilli (chili) is equally good. Add cautiously — a little goes a long way in a sauce this concentrated.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to make the meatballs from scratch for this recipe?

This recipe is designed to use four meatballs from the prepable beef meatball batch — the base recipe in this More Ways Than One edition. If you have not made the batch yet, head there first. The meatballs take around 20 minutes to prepare and keep in the fridge for up to four days, making this a quick and easy dinner once the prep is done. However, you can use pre-made meatballs if you prefer.

Can I use shop-bought romesco sauce?

You can, though homemade is so quick and so much better that it is genuinely worth making from scratch. The blender does all the work in about two minutes, and the difference in flavour between a freshly made romesco and a jarred version is significant. If you are very short on time, a good quality shop-bought version will work, but try the homemade at least once first.

What is the best vinegar to use in romesco?

Sherry vinegar is the traditional choice and gives a slightly deeper, more complex, nuttier result that suits the Spanish origins of the sauce. Red wine vinegar is a perfectly good substitute with a cleaner, slightly sharper edge. Both work well here — use whichever you have, or whichever you prefer.

Can I make the romesco ahead of time?

Yes — and it is actually better for it. Make the romesco up to two days in advance and store in a sealed container in the fridge. The flavours meld and deepen overnight, and having the sauce already made means this recipe comes together in under 15 minutes when you are ready to eat.

Can I serve this with something other than bread?

Crusty bread is the natural partner for romesco, but this dish is also excellent served over a simple grain — couscous, bulgur wheat or warm farro all work beautifully as a base, soaking up the sauce in a similar way. For something lighter, a handful of rocket (arugula) dressed with a little olive oil and lemon juice alongside makes a fresh, simple accompaniment.

How does this recipe compare to the other More Ways Than One meatball recipes?

Each of the four recipes in this edition takes the same meatball base in a completely different direction. The garlic honey soy meatballs are sticky and Asian-inspired; the roasted red pepper and mozzarella meatball orzo is a baked pasta dish; the Thai red curry meatball noodle soup is warming and fragrant. This romesco recipe is the most Mediterranean in character — bold, smoky and elegant — and arguably the most dinner-party-worthy of the four, despite being just as quick and simple as the rest.

Closing

Four meatball recipes, four completely different dinners, one batch of prep. If this More Ways Than One edition has shown you anything, I hope it is that cooking for one can be varied, exciting and genuinely effortless — all at the same time.