A few weeks ago I made the Crisp Polenta Cake with Spicy Greens from Joyce Goldstein’s Antipasti. I was really disappointed with the results, the greens weren’t particularly delicious and the texture of the polenta was a bit difficult to swallow. The recipe is meant to serve 8-12 people (and I halved it), but the two of us finished off all the greens and had tons of the polenta cake leftover

The next day I dug around in the fridge and came up with some left over garlic scape pesto and a wedge of Parmesan. The oils from the pesto seeped into the top layer of the polenta, and the second baking made the polenta just that much crisper. Topped with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan, the leftovers were much easier to swallow.

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I have four recipe binders, two of new, untested recipes that are always being added to. While many of the new recipes I try are “keepers”, I hardly ever make them since there are so many new recipes to try! Not so with this chard dish that I’ve adapted from a recipe on epicurious. This versatile side is my go to dish for any entree that is just a little to plain on it’s own. This is also a great way to use up chard stems from dishes that only call for the leaves.

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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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