Mushroom Manchego Risotto Balls

I made these delicious risotto balls shortly after I made this recipe for Mushroom Risotto and am sharing the recipe this week for I Heart Cooking Clubs January Potluck. It seems like everyone at IHCC was making some type of risotto balls and I just had to give it a go, especially since I had just made mushroom risotto and had a half batch leftover in the fridge. The recipe I used suggested mozzarella cubes inside of tomato risotto balls, which sounds wonderful, but I went with some Manchego cheese to stuff inside of these mushroom risotto balls and it was a match made in heaven!


Fried Risotto Balls
adapted from Tessa Kiros -- Apples for Jam

About 3 cups cold risotto (1/2 batch cooked risotto leftovers, I probably had closer to 4 cups)
4 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cups small cubed cheese
1 and 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned bread crumbs)
oil for frying
optional lemon wedges to serve

Mix the risotto and parmesan together in a bowl. Lightly beat one of the eggs and gradually stir into the risotto, stopping when the risotto is damp but still firm enough to be shaped.


Moisten your hands with a little water; take a heaping tablespoon of mixture, and roll it into a ball. Make a tunnel into the center with your finger and push a cheese cube into it. Squeeze the ball to close the opening and seal in the cheese. Do this with the rest of the mixture.


Lightly beat the other egg in a flat bowl. Put the bread crumbs on a plate.

Roll the balls in the egg and then the bread crumbs and put on a cookie sheet or large plate. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Pour about 1 inch of oil into a frying pan and heat until hot but not smoking. (I used my electric skillet for frying these, which is my new favorite way to deep fry, it is so easy. I had about 3 inches of oil and my oil temperature was about 355-360.) Fry the balls in batches, gently moving them around in the oil and turning them often so they brown evenly. Each batch will take about 2 minutes, then you can lift them out onto a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Fried risotto balls are best served warm with a squeeze of lemon of juice but are also fine eaten at room temperature.

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I love this photo with the stringy cheese, it reminds me when I first learned about fried Italian rice balls (many years ago, before they were uber popular, in one of my old cookbooks) with the name Suppli al Telefono, meaning telephone wires because the string from the cheese when you take a bite is long like telephone wires :)

These were absolutely delicious, the flavors of the cheese and mushroom risotto went so well together. In the recipe preface in the book the author mentions her children love risotto balls, so I was half expecting my kids to like these too, especially with the cute saying about telephone wires, but nope, all three of my kids gave these a try and did not like them :( I'm hoping it was because the manchego and mushroom flavors are a touch too "grown-up"? Ah well. Guess I will have to try the tomato risotto with mozzarella version for a more kid friendly risotto ball!