Bacon-Pea Arancini

Last night's dinner was a traditional Italian favourite: Arancini. Arancini is essentially a risotto croquette, usually stuffed with something in the middle and served with a tomato sauce. The results are a crispy shell surrounding a gooey, cheesy, melty core, with a lovely surprise at the centre... in short, heaven.

It all begins with the risotto, I decided to garnish mine with sweet peas and of course, bacon. I let the risotto cool as long as I could bear, (which incidentally wasn't long enough, more on that later).

Then I made the rice balls with chunks of mozzarella in the centre and baked in a 375 oven for about half an hour.

Pre-oven, drizzled with a little olive oil to promote browning...

and post-oven...

As you can see, they melted more than I had anticipated in the oven. I think this has to do with the fact that it wasn't leftover risotto, but fresh and therefore hadn't had time to set as well in the fridge, so the balls were looser and essentially collapsed...doesn't hurt the flavour though!

Once they were done, I served them over a very simple tomato sauce with lots of fresh parsley, bacon and parm on top, and Caesar salad on the side.

Leftovers tonight!