{"id":11731,"date":"2012-08-08T14:22:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T19:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankymouse.com\/?p=11731"},"modified":"2012-08-08T16:02:25","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T21:02:25","slug":"baked-stuffed-arancini-arancine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankymouse.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/08\/baked-stuffed-arancini-arancine\/","title":{"rendered":"Baked Mozzarella-Stuffed Arancini for Sunday Night Dinners"},"content":{"rendered":"

This recipe for baked arancini where leftover risotto is stuffed with fresh mozzarella balls, herbs, and bacon, breaded and baked is a meal you’ll be happy to invite your family over to enjoy with you. <\/em>
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\nSunday dinners worked like clockwork when I was growing up. They were spent at my grandparents’ home, wrestling on the floor with my uncle, eating black olives off our fingers, and for me, silently sitting in the kitchen watching my grandma fuss over the meal. Her hair would be pulled back under a triangle cloth; my babushka wearing her babushka. Smells of roasting meats and simmering sauces would float around the house, catching under our nose and promising we’d all be stuffed soon enough.
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I can close my eyes and instantly be filled with the memories of Sunday dinners at grandma’s house, but these days there are none for my own children to imprint in their heads, so I must create them myself.
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It starts, you see, with an invitation. Generally our requests are rather last-minute. A simple text, a random phone call to see what they’re doing, dropping by their house unannounced to invite them over just hours before dinner will be served. My house is generally still in disarray, as it seems to be the new norm around here, but the patio is presentable, and I figure I’ll just blindfold my guests before I send them through the house to use the WC.
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\nOnce the invitation is extended and accepted, then we add random things to the meal to make it stretch, like gnocchi and pasta because I just invited my brother, sister, and her boyfriend over for dinner in 50 minutes. Ahem.
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Here’s the thing. No one cares about my crazy, or that I made a random mix of carbs to stretch the meal, and my kids smiled and laughed and spent time with some of their favorite adults, whom they then coerced into giving them piggyback rides up and down the hill in our backyard, one right after the other. (We did carb load, after all.)
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\nIt doesn’t hurt to have a bunch of leftover risotto to turn into arancini and a garden full of heirloom tomatoes that make the most delectable homemade sauce to serve them on. Arancini is a wonderful way to use up leftover risotto, but it’s also a great excuse to just make an extra large batch of it. Stuffed with tiny balls of fresh mozzarella, peppered bacon from the farmers market, and fresh basil and oregano from the garden, it’s hard to say no to seconds of these baked beauties.
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Facts and Tips for Making Arancini:<\/font><\/h3>\n