Spanish Meatballs Recipe

First, prep all of the ingredients. Mince (finely chop) the garlic cloves. Remove the skin from the onion and rough chop the onion into smaller pieces, no wider than a 1/4-inch. Dice your chorizo into small cubes. Roughly chop the parsley leaves. Using a cheese grater, grate the manchego until it’s the consistency of grated Parmesan.

Heat a large, flat-bottomed skillet or frying pan over medium heat for one minute. Add in the olive oil and heat it for another 90 seconds. Then, add the chopped onions, garlic, drained capers and parsley to the pan. Sauté the ingredients, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes — until the onions start to caramelize on the edges and the garlic begins to brown. Finally, pour ¼ cup of sherry over the cooked ingredients, allowing it to evaporate off. Turn off the heat. Season with salt.

In a mixing bowl, combine the ground pork, chorizo, eggs, breadcrumbs, black pepper, paprika and manchego cheese. Gently stir the meat mixture with a wooden spoon until it’s all evenly combined. You don’t want any dry pockets of breadcrumbs or really wet (eggy) zones. You also want to be careful not to over-mix, which can lead to a tougher meatball. If the mixture appears too loose or wet to easily form meatballs with, you can add extra breadcrumbs or grated cheese (1 tablespoon at a time) until the mixture holds its shape.

Once the onion mixture has cooled off (about 5 minutes), add them into the bowl with the meat mixture. Continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the skillet ingredients are evenly mixed throughout the meat. You now have a meatball mixture.

To form the meatballs, roll a large spoonful of the mixture between your hands. Aim to create 1 to 1 ½ inch meatballs. Once rolled, place them on a piece of wax paper with a little space in between each ball.

Re-heat the same frying pan or skillet that you used earlier over medium heat. If you need to, you can add another 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan. This will help the meatballs not stick when cooked. Once the pan is heated up (after about 2 minutes), individually place the meatballs into the skillet. Leave at least ¼ inch in between the meatballs. An overcrowded pan will cause the meatballs to steam and not brown.

Using a fork or cooking tongs, let the meatballs cook on each side for a couple minutes. Once a side is golden brown, turn it to the uncooked side. The first meatballs you put in the pan will cook faster, so keep an eye on those so they don’t burn underneath. You may need to slightly turn up the heat, once the meatballs are in the pan, to ensure even browning.

When all the meatballs are evenly browned, turn the heat down to medium-low. Then, pour in the remaining ½ cup of dry sherry. Use a wooden spoon and scrape the brown bits in the pan together with the wine. Allow the wine to slowly evaporate down by half. As it steams, the meatballs will continue to cook all the way through while a thin wine sauce will form.

Once the wine has reduced by half, turn off the heat and serve. Enjoy!