I have a new favorite appetizer recipe. Imagine risotto, wrapped around a cube of mozzarella cheese and then deep-fried. As you bite through the seasoned cooked rice, flavored with olive oil, garlic onions, white wine and spinach, to the melted cheese center you experience a burst of flavor and a surprise burst of melted cheese. These wonderful small bites are called Spinach Arancini.
It will take a couple of hours to make the arancini (but it's so worth it!), so I’d recommend starting it the night before you want to serve them. Begin by cooking the risotto and pressing it into a 12x8-inch rectangle; cool. When cool, cut rice mixture into 6 rows by 4 rows to make 24 squares. Refrigerate overnight.
Roll each square of rice around a cheese cube into a ball.
Roll each cheese-stuffed rice ball into bread crumbs; deep fry until golden brown. Here is Liz, a summer intern, frying up a batch of them in the test kitchens.
When they are done, they look like this:
They taste way better than they look with their melted cheese centers. Yum!
Liz loved them and you will too. So will the guys you are feeding during the Super Bowl game!
