Winter Squash Arancini

Ingredients

Easy enough to whip up the breadcrumbs yourself. Good bread => good breadcrumbs.

  1. Cut Cut the bread into 1/2-inch cubes, leaving the crust on, spreading them in an even layer on a baking sheet.
  2. Bake Heat the oven to its lowest setting, ~250ºF. Bake until the cubes are Dry but not browned - an hour or more
  3. Process Cool fully, and then process by pulsing in a food processor. The goal is small crumbs more-or-less the same size, without too much fine powder, so stop once or twice and pour off the finer crumbs or shake through a coriander and then continue to crush the remaining pieces.

Store the crumbs in an airtight container. If fully dry, they'll stay fresh for a few weels

Arancini

  1. Shape - Oil a baking sheet and spread the risotto out in a 1/2-inch thick layer to cool. When it's completely cool, use an ice cream scoop to scoop and shape into 32 balls
  2. Cheese - put a bit of cheese in each ball. Pull some risotto around the hole the cheese made, and roll around your palm to remake it into a ball. Set onto another baking sheet
  3. Breading - Heat the oven to 375ºF. With breadcrumbs in a large shallow bowl, roll each ball in the breadcrumbs to cover thoroughly, patting lightly to make sure the crumbs are sticking
  4. Fry - Put 1/2 inch of vegetable oil into a large skillet and heat to about 375ºF. In small batches, fry each ball for about 2 minutes so its browned all over, and transfer to a baking sheet. When the sheet is full, cook in the oven until they are hot all the way through and the cheese has melted, 7-10 minutes (or a bit longer if they have been sitting at room temperature for some time after frying). Serve hot