Risotto balls!! My new favorite dish! Super tasty, a bit heavy so don’t make too many of them but it’s a real special side dish to impress your friends and family with. This version is filled with mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil.

Risotto balls filled with tomato and mozzarella
45 minutes
Average
0 – 5 euro pp

Ingredients for 4 pers.:

  • 300 gr risotto rice
  • 1 onion
  • 150 ml white wine
  • 900 ml vegetable broth
  • mozzarella
  • 2 tomatoes
  • fresh basil
  • parmesan cheese
  • 4 ts flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 ts twice baked bread
  • pepper

How to prepare it:

Start by cooking some water for the vegetable broth and put a large cooking pan with a thick bottom on your stove. Chop the onion and add a dash of the olive oil in your pan. Weigh your rice to get the right amount. Heat up your stove, once the oil is hot you can add the onion. Fritter the onion for 2 min before adding the rice. After you’ve added the rice, stir everything well until the rice is glazy from the oil. Let them bake for another minute. Add the wine, your pan should be really hot, so that the wine is cooking immediately. Make sure that you keep stirring. Once the wine is evaporated you can start adding the bouillon. Add the bouillon in separated fazes, approx.. 100-200 ml at a time. You need to stir very regularly so that the rice is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.

The risotto is ready once it’s a creamy substance without any hard pieces. You can taste a bit to make sure that the rice is ready. But you can also judge the rice by its color, the rice is bright white at the moment you start but it gets a friendlier and softer color once it’s ready. If you added all the bouillon but you’re not sure if the rice is ready you can always add some extra water, do be careful so that you won’t add too much, the rice needs to remain sticky.

Once the rice is ready, take it off the stove. Stir the grated parmesan cheese and some pepper through the risotto and let it cool down a bit. Cut the mozzarella into thin slices. Cut the tomatoes into really small blocks and chop the basil.

Fill the palm of your hand with risotto, make a small hole in the middle and put a piece of mozzarella into that hole. Top it off with some tomato blocks and a bit of basil. Fold the risotto around the mozzarella so that a nice ball is following. Repeat this until you have enough risotto balls.

Now get three different plates ready.

Plate 1: add the flour and spread the flour onto the bottom of the plate

Plate 2: add the eggs and stir them well

Plate 3: This one is for the twice baked bread crumbs; add some salt, pepper and the lime grate. Stir well.

Take one of the risotto balls and take it to the flour, roll it through the eggs and finally through the twice baked-bread. Repeat this for all the balls.

Get your frying pan ready or use a wok, fill it up with olive oil. Heat up the oil (like really hot).  Fry the balls for about 5-8 minutes depending on the size. You can serve them immediately.

Risotto balls filled with tomato and mozzarella
Risotto balls filled with tomato and mozzarella
Risotto balls filled with tomato and mozzarella
Risotto balls filled with tomato and mozzarella
Risotto balls filled with tomato and mozzarella