{"id":3240,"date":"2026-10-06T13:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T13:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canlluis.com\/meatballs-with-cuttlefish-and-peas\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T15:53:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T15:53:54","slug":"meatballs-with-cuttlefish-and-peas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/canlluis.com\/en\/meatballs-with-cuttlefish-and-peas\/","title":{"rendered":"Meatballs with cuttlefish and peas"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"3240\" class=\"elementor elementor-3240 elementor-3238 elementor-bc-flex-widget\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-89a3b7b elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"89a3b7b\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;gradient&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-background-overlay\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7e7d2d1\" data-id=\"7e7d2d1\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-eb73123 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"eb73123\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;_animation&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Meatballs with cuttlefish and peas<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-64d1310 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"64d1310\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5f924c6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-html\" data-id=\"5f924c6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<style>.cl-pc{max-width:820px;margin:0 auto;padding:56px 20px 72px;color:#201E18}.cl-pc-lead{font-size:20px;line-height:1.6;margin:0 0 40px}.cl-pc h2{font-size:30px;line-height:1.25;color:#3E3F24;margin:48px 0 20px}.cl-pc h2:after{content:\"\";display:block;width:56px;height:2px;background:#BA8747;margin-top:14px}.cl-pc-time{list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;border-left:2px solid #E7E1D4}.cl-pc-time li{margin:0;padding:0 0 22px 22px;position:relative}.cl-pc-time li:before{content:\"\";position:absolute;left:-6px;top:8px;width:10px;height:10px;border-radius:50%;background:#BA8747}.cl-pc-year{display:block;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;color:#723736;margin-bottom:2px}.cl-pc-press{list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;display:grid;gap:14px;grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr}.cl-pc-press a{display:block;height:100%;background:#F6F2E9;border:1px solid #E7E1D4;border-radius:6px;padding:18px 20px;text-decoration:none;color:#201E18}.cl-pc-press a:hover{border-color:#BA8747}.cl-pc-out{display:block;font-size:13px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#3E3F24}.cl-pc-date{display:block;font-size:13px;color:#7A7660;margin:2px 0 8px}.cl-pc-tt{display:block;font-size:18px;line-height:1.35;font-weight:700}.cl-pc-more{display:block;margin-top:10px;font-size:15px;color:#723736}.cl-pc-cta{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:12px;margin:44px 0 0}.cl-pc-cta a{display:inline-block;padding:14px 26px;border:1px solid #3E3F24;color:#3E3F24;text-decoration:none;font-size:16px;letter-spacing:.04em}.cl-pc-cta a.cl-pc-main{background:#3E3F24;color:#fff}.cl-pc-note{margin:40px 0 0;padding:16px 0 0;border-top:1px solid #E7E1D4;font-size:15px!important;line-height:1.55!important;font-style:italic;color:#6E6A55}@media(max-width:767px){.cl-pc{padding:36px 20px 56px}.cl-pc h2{font-size:25px}.cl-pc-press{grid-template-columns:1fr}.cl-pc-cta a{width:100%;text-align:center}}<\/style><style>.cl-dish{display:grid;grid-template-columns:2fr 3fr;gap:32px;align-items:start;margin:8px 0 0}.cl-dish figure{margin:0}.cl-dish img{display:block;width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:4px}.cl-dish h2{margin-top:0!important}.cl-dish-price{font-size:22px;font-weight:700;color:#723736;margin:14px 0 0}@media(max-width:767px){.cl-dish{grid-template-columns:1fr;gap:20px}}<\/style><div class=\"cl-pc\"><p class=\"cl-pc-lead\">Veal and pork meatballs slowly stewed with cuttlefish and peas: a classic Catalan surf-and-turf, at Carrer de la Cera, 49.<\/p><div class=\"cl-dish\"><figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/can-lluis-mandonguilles-sipia-pesols-1.jpg\" alt=\"Can Llu\u00eds meatballs with cuttlefish and peas, served in the pan\" width=\"779\" height=\"975\"><\/figure><div><h2>How we make them at Can Llu\u00eds<\/h2><p>We make them with minced veal, pork and cured pork belly, bread soaked in milk, egg, garlic and parsley. We dust them in chickpea flour, fry them and finish them in the pot over a low heat with cuttlefish, peas, tomato and slow-cooked onion. They come out soft and with plenty of sauce: ask for bread.<\/p><p class=\"cl-dish-price\">\u20ac16.50<\/p><\/div><\/div><h2>A little history<\/h2><p>Meatballs are as old as written cookery. The Romans already made them: they called them <em>isicium<\/em>, from the verb to chop, and the cookbook of Apicius, from the first century, has around twenty recipes. With no mincing machines, the meat was chopped by hand, which made them food for wealthy households.<\/p><p>The name comes from Arabic: <em>al-b\u00fanduqa<\/em> gave Castilian <em>alb\u00f3ndigas<\/em> and, from there, Catalan <em>mandonguilles<\/em>, already found in writing in the seventeenth century. In Catalonia they are made with pork and veal mixed, fried and then stewed with a sofregit; in Barcelona they are known as \u201cmandonguilles amb suc\u201d, meatballs with sauce. With peas they are a spring stew, when peas are in season, and in Barcelona they are made, like ours, with pork, veal and cured pork belly.<\/p><p>They are inn food too. The folklorist Joan Amades records that in early twentieth-century Barcelona fifteen c\u00e8ntims bought a choice of offal, fricand\u00f3 or meatballs in sauce. And Manuel V\u00e1zquez Montalb\u00e1n, who wrote Can Llu\u00eds into his Pepe Carvalho stories, stood up for the soft meatball, made with breadcrumb and egg, against the kind that turns out hard as a stone.<\/p><p>The pairing in our dish is in Montalb\u00e1n\u2019s <em>La cocina de los mediterr\u00e1neos<\/em> too, as \u201csepia con alb\u00f3ndigas\u201d: cuttlefish cooked on a sofregit of onion and tomato, pork meatballs made with bread soaked in milk, and a picada of almonds to finish.<\/p><h2>Also on the menu<\/h2><p>If you like slow-cooked stews, try the <a href=\"https:\/\/canlluis.com\/en\/stewed-snails\/\">Can Llu\u00eds stewed snails<\/a> too (\u20ac18.90).<\/p><div class=\"cl-pc-cta\"><a class=\"cl-pc-main\" href=\"https:\/\/canlluis.com\/en\/reservations\/\">Book a table<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/canlluis.com\/en\/menu\/\">See the menu<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/canlluis.com\/en\/our-dishes\/\">All our dishes<\/a><\/div><p class=\"cl-pc-note\">Further reading: <em>Hist\u00f2ria de la cuina catalana i occitana<\/em>, vol. VIII, by Vicent Marqu\u00e9s (Edicions Sidill\u00e0, 2025), and <em>La cocina de los mediterr\u00e1neos<\/em>, by Manuel V\u00e1zquez Montalb\u00e1n (Ediciones B, 2002).<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3237,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3240","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Meatballs with cuttlefish and peas - Can Llu\u00eds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/canlluis.com\/en\/meatballs-with-cuttlefish-and-peas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meatballs with cuttlefish and peas - 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