Arancini...Proof that Leftovers are Delicious

            My family has never been one that wastes…anything. Being the oldest daughter of an ecologist and an Italian-American who was raised the daughter of a poor Italian mining community in the Pittsburgh area hit hard by the Depression, I have it in my blood to not throw anything away.

            My parents are champions at keeping EVERYTHING, especially my mom, who throws nothing away until it is utterly and completely ruined, and even then not everything gets the boot. She still has all of her college t-shirts, and she keeps food until every single drop or crumb is gone or it is obviously non-edible (expiration dates are merely a suggestion). There have been so many times in which I, cleaning the kitchen, have found three crumbs of a muffin on a plate placed on the counter. Thinking this is the plate of someone who did not take the time to put the plate in the dishwasher, I throw the crumbs into the trash. Like clockwork, a few hours later my mom enters the kitchen asking Where’s my muffin? Marti…did you throw away my muffin? I was keeping that for snack! I pretend not to hear her or know what happened, which rarely works, and in time I have gradually learned to keep to my crumbs and let others take care of theirs.

            My grandmother survived the Great Depression with no mother and three brothers in a poor Italian immigrant community,  She is always thinking about how we can save or not have to go to the store to buy something new. Grandma makes rags out of old clothes, sews holes in socks, and even saves the bags that sliced bread comes in to use instead of Ziplock bags when she makes too many cookies or needs a bag of ice for a grandchild’s boo-boo. My grandma is also the Grand Master of using left-overs to create new and inventive meals, such as using leftover mashed potatoes to make some of the best gnocchi I’ve ever eaten, or using leftover meat to make a ragu’ by shredding it and serving it with red sauce. She’s brilliant, my grandma.

            I have a little bit of both my mother and my grandmother in the way that I live. I will keep a bottle of balsamic vinegar until there are two drops left, and I love to make creative new dishes out of leftovers.  (I do step out of line with mom’s habit of keeping all food  and throw away things that have expired…my less-frugal boyfriend has made that influence on me in that way.) In a quest to not have to make the decision of throwing away old food, I try to use leftovers as quickly as possible the next day, creating a new meal out of the old one, and I find that the Italian cuisine lends itself beautifully to this. You can always throw some leftover meat or vegetables into a sauce or stew (ribollita was made just for this – a stew of leftover vegetables served over day-old bread). My favorite thing to make, however, comes from leftover risotto (rice made with short-grain, or arborio, rice), and is a Sicilian specialty. Literally meaning “little oranges” arancini are traditionally friend balls of rice, similar to croquettes, stuffed with cheese or ragu’ (made of meat or vegetables). In order to save myself some stomach aches and the pain of using a deep fryer, I bake mine in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and serve these as a side dish or tasty snack.

**You can also use sticky rice if risotto is not on hand – as the forming of the balls is based on the idea that the rice sticks together by itself, basamati or long-grain rice might not have enough starch. However, if you would like to try with regular rice and maybe throw an egg in the leftover rice to give it some binding agents, go for it!

Arancini

1 ½ cups leftover risoto

½ cup cubed cheese (any kind that you wish)

½ cup Sauce or Ragu (optional

1 egg, beaten

¾ cup breadcrumbs

¾ cups flour

olive oil

           

 Preheat the oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper, and place the flour, egg, and breadcrumbs in three separate bowls, one after another.

Form six patties with the leftover risotto and place them on a plate. Take a patty in the palm of your hand. Place the cheese (and sauce if you choose) in the middle of the circle and reshape the rice around to form a ball.  Repeat with the other five patties. 

 Once each ball of rice is stuffed with cheese, dip the balls into the flour, then the egg, and then roll in the breadcrumbs to create a breading, and place back on the pan. Drizzle the balls with olive oil if you like and cook for 25 minutes. 

Let cool for five minutes and then, serve immediately.