Aranci­ni

Aranci­ni

(1 large ball per per­son, or 2 small)

Take your left­over risot­to from the fridge about an hour before you want to eat, and spread it in a lay­er on a cook­ie sheet or bak­ing dish.  The idea is to take the chill off so that the fried ball will not be cold on the inside, nor will you have to burn the crumbs in order to get the inner bites warm.

Place Japan­ese panko bread­crumbs in a shal­low dish.

Heat what­ev­er quan­ti­ty of taste­less oil you feel com­fort­able with in a uten­sil you like.  I use a deep fry­er, but a large saucepan

Now with clean hands, roll a good por­tion of risot­to into a ball about the size of lime, or if you’re feel­ing as if you’d like them more fork than fin­ger food, a lemon.  Flat­ten the ball a bit and tuck a small piece of buf­fa­lo moz­zarel­la inside, then fold the edges back togeth­er and roll into a ball again.

Roll in bread­crumbs till com­plete­ly coat­ed.  When a pinch of bread­crumbs in the oil fries instant­ly, the oil is ready.  Care­ful­ly place each ball in the hot oil and let cook until brown, turn­ing fre­quent­ly.  The idea is to get the inside warmed through — of course you can’t tell, but you can imag­ine — with­out over-brown­ing the out­side.  When you are hap­py with the col­oration of your aran­ci­no, take it out and place it gen­tly on a few fold­ed paper tow­els.  If you have a plate-warm­ing oven, place the aranci­ni inside and keep adding to the plate until you are finished.