In assembling recipes for this Cuban extravaganza, I thought I’d like to have some kind of empanada, the little pastry turnover or patty found throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. They seemed labor­-­intensive, however, and a bit heavy. So we saved the stuffing and threw out the turkey. We borrowed a Vietnamese custom and placed the ground­ ­beef mixture, called picadillo, in cups made of iceberg lettuce, and topped them with heirloom­ ­tomato salsa to form exquisite bite­-­size packages. (Who wants to get weighed down by a lot of heavy fried dough ­anyway?)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable ­oil
• 2 pounds lean ground ­beef
• 2 medium yellow onions, ­minced
• 4 garlic cloves, ­minced
• 1/2 cup chopped pimiento­-­stuffed green olives
• 1 cup ­raisins
• 2 tablespoons capers, ­drained
• 4 tablespoons white ­vinegar
• 1 cup Tomato Sauce
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large heads of iceberg ­lettuce
• Fresh Tomato Salsa

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium­-­high flame. Add the beef and sauté, stirring and breaking up with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes, until it’s evenly browned with no lumps. Add the onions and cook for an additional 2 minutes, until they are soft. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring ­occasionally.

2. Stir in the olives, raisins, capers, vinegar, and tomato sauce. Season with the salt and pepper. Lower the heat to medium­-­low, cover, and cook for 30 ­minutes.

3. Break off the outside leaves of the lettuce heads and carefully pull out the inner curled leaves to form cups. Place them on a serving platter and fill each of them with about 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture. Top each mound of meat with a teaspoon of tomato ­salsa.

Note: Leftover outside leaves of the lettuce can be reserved to make a salad. The leftover meat mixture can be topped with potatoes or sweet potatoes to make a Cottage Pie, or combined with tomato sauce to make a ragù for ­pasta.

Other Appetizer Recipes

Escabeche of Swordfish
Grilled Peking Duck Pancakes
Gyoza
Maize Fritters
Samoosas

Other Beef Recipes

BBQ Burgers
Beef Stew over Orzo
Braised Short Ribs
Filet Mignon Rolled in Pepper
Homemade Meatloaf
Pan-Seared Aged New York Steak
Argentina Flank Steak
Chicago Steak

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Cuba Libre