baked spinach arancini stuffed with mozzarella cheese.

Arancini; a resourceful (and delicious) way to use up leftover risotto. There isn't often leftover risotto in my house, so in this case I deliberately made too much and used a lot of will power to save it until the next day. Plus, you only need two extra ingredients to make them - flour and cheese. This simple baked arancini recipe is made from a simple spinach, onion and white wine risotto, before being stuffed by mini mozzarella balls and cooked until golden. My theory is, if they aren't deep fried then you're allowed to have more cheese...

Shopping list.
(Makes five arancini)
♥ Approx 250g leftover cooked risotto
♥ 50g plain flour
♥ Salt and pepper to season
♥ Mini mozzarella balls
♥ Parmesan and rocket to serve

Tip: Even though you may have weighed the risotto rice when you made it, weigh again and use the cooked amount. It works out about 1:5 ratio, so if you have 200g it would be 40g of flour, 100g it would be 25g flour and so on.

Step one. Mix together your risotto with the flour. I wondered if I'd need an egg here but it the risotto had a sticky consistency and combined no problem. Season with salt and pepper as required.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c.

Step two. Lay out a flat circle, add in the mozzarella and form into a ball. If you wanted to make vegan risotto balls, at this point you could actually not add the cheese.

Step three. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden, carefully turning half way.

Serve immediately with extra black pepper, parmesan and fresh rocket.

Have you ever made homemade arancini? Or tried them baked? What are your favourite recipes for leftover risotto?

Here are a few other recipe ideas from fellow food bloggers...

Crispy Tomato Arancini - Kitchen Sanctuary 
Mozzarella Stuffed Mushroom Arancini - Foodie Quine
Mushroom Arancini -  The Petite Cook