Over a year ago when I had yet to begin experimenting with risotto, I made a recipe from the Vegetarian Times  for Mozzarella-Stuffed Arancini that called for instant rice. Instead I cooked up some of the wild brown rice mix I had on hand & the result was a delicious failure, with the balls breaking apart in the oil, but mmm deep fried cheese.

Then I made a shortcut risotto one day (all the ingredients, but less stirring) and it turned out really well  - I moved on to “real” risottos with the gradual adding of stock and frequent stirring. I always thought of the arancini as I’m generally just cooking for two & don’t always like to reduce new recipes, but the leftovers were always so good on their own (odd, as it seems that most of the recipes for arancini I’ve seen online have suggested that plain day old risotto is undesirable).

A few days ago I made a roasted garlic risotto & I knew it was time to finally make “real” arancini when the leftovers I packed for my lunch were less than appealing. I picked up a tub of bocconcini on my way home from work & attempted to work from this recipe until I realized that the leftover risotto was flavourful enough on it’s own without having additional ingredients mixed into it & the process was so simple that only vague instructions were necessary . . .

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