Mandonguilles amb Sípia

Mandonguilles amb sípia is Catalan mar i muntanya, sea and mountain in the same pot. Pork and beef meatballs meet cuttlefish in a dark sofregit, then an almond-and-bread picada binds their juices into one sauce. The cuttlefish isn't an ornament laid beside the meat. It braises with it, gives the sauce its clean sea taste, and becomes tender enough to cut with a fork.

The sofregit decides whether the dish works. Cook the onion low until dark gold and jammy, then reduce the tomato until its water is gone and the oil appears again. That slow cooking makes the sweetness and depth the meatballs and cuttlefish need. A pale, hurried base leaves two good ingredients sitting in a thin sauce, barely introduced.

If cuttlefish is difficult to find, use large squid, body and tentacles, cut to the same size. The result will be a little sweeter and less firm, and you should begin testing it 10 minutes earlier. Frozen cleaned cuttlefish is perfectly good once thawed slowly and dried well. No hace falta haber pisado España, you don't need to have set foot in Spain, but you do need to let the sofregit take its time.

Shape the meatballs evenly, keep the braise gentle, and add the picada only near the end. My notebook margin says simply, let the sauce settle before judging it. Ten minutes off the heat does what another spoonful of flour never will.