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Serves 20 Arancini Balls
Preparation Time 10 minutes
Cooking Time 1 hour
Tick off the ingredients as you buy them
1. Combine 700g of passata and the vegetable stock into a small pan. Heat until boiling, then turn off heat.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan, add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes until the onion starts to go translucent.
3. Add in the garlic, stir and cook for a further minute.
4. Add Val Verde risotto rice and stir until the oil has coated the rice.
5. Add in the wine and stir. Wait for the wine to almost fully absorb (stirring regularly) and then add the passata sauce a cup at a time. Ensuring each cup has almost fully absorbed before adding the next. Ensure you stir regularly. This should take 15-20 mins.
6. Once you've used up all the stock, the rice should be soft but still have a bit of a bite to it (it will soften up a little further when you add the cream). If the rice is still hard, add in a ladle of hot water and keep stirring until absorbed. This may take further 5 minutes.
7. When the rice at desired consistency, add in the cream, parmesan, lemon juice and salt & pepper. Stir and then turn off the heat.
8. Leave to cool in the pan, then cover with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes (or up to 2-3 days).
9. To make the Arancini Balls, put the beaten eggs, breadcrumbs and flour on 3 different large plates.
10. Take the cold risotto out of the fridge. Put a heaped tbsp. of the rice into your hand. Flatten it out and then place mozzarella in the centre. Wrap the risotto around the cheese and roll into a ball. Repeat until you've used all the mixture.
11. Fill a large and deep saucepan with the vegetable oil until it's about 1/3 full. There needs to be enough oil to completely cover the Arancini Ball. Heat the oil on high.
12. Dip each Arancini Ball in turn into the flour, egg and finally the breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess as you go.
13. Check the heat of the oil by dropping in a few of the panko breadcrumbs. If they immediately rise to the top and bubble vigorously, then the oil is ready. Turn it down to medium-high and carefully place in a maximum of 3 Arancini Balls in the oil.
14. Cook for 2 minutes until the Arancini is golden brown, then remove from the oil with a spoon and place on a wire rack with kitchen paper underneath to drain. Repeat until all the Arancini Balls are cooked.
15. Serve with some garden salad on the side and a touch of mayonnaise.
Use stock as an alternative to white wine, if desired.