Spinach mozzarella arancini

Spinach & mozzarella arancini with roast tomato sauce

PREP TIME: 30 mins (2-3 hours cook and cool time for risotto filling)
COOK TIME: 10 mins
SERVES: makes 22

Thanks to Westinghouse and former rugby player and father Beau Ryan.

Beau Ryan says: "This is one of my wife's favourites – she's a massive fan of Italian style cooking. If you ask her she'd tell you it's because she's half Italian, even though I've never met an Italian person in her entire family tree (but I'd never tell her that). Bite-size cheesy goodness!"

Ingredients

Spinach risotto filling
• 1 onion finely diced
• 1 tbsp oil
• 5 threads saffron, soaked in stock
• 1 litre chicken stock, hot
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/2 cup aborio rice (350g)
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup parmesan, grated
• 50g butter
• 150g baby spinach, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp pesto

Mozzarella Balls

• 50g mozzarella, cut into 1cm cubes
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg for coating
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup flour for coating
• 1 cup bread crumbs for coating
• 1 cup panko crumbs for coating
• Rice bran oil spray

Tomato sauce
• 1 tin crushed tomatoes
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup red onion finely sliced
• 1/4 cup red wine vin
• 1/2 cup water
• 2tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 10 basil leaves
• Salt and Pepper

Method
Spinach risotto filling
1. Sauté the onion till just golden and sticky in oil. Add crushed garlic, stir for 1min 2. Add rice, stir for 3mins. Add wine and cook off
3. Add ladles of stock, stirring the whole time, letting each ladle full cook in before adding the next. 4. Before the last 2 ladles add the spinach and pesto to cook in
5. Finish the last 2 ladles, adding boiling water if not cooked (cooked should be soft outside, bite inside)
6. Add butter and parmesan, store and cover.
7. Allow to cool 2-3hrs before assembling arancini

Mozzarella Balls
1. Combine the 1 egg and milk and whisk
2. Make ¼ cup balls and insert a mozzarella cube
3. Dredge in flour, dip in egg and roll in crumb, spray all sides in olive oil
4. Preheat oven to air fry 250 °C
5. AirFry till golden - 10 mins

Tomato sauce
1. Sauté onion in oil till softened, add remaining ingredients and simmer for 20mins. Puree once cooled slightly.

Serve with tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves and parmesan.