In advance of my Saturday afternoon cook along on Instagram I’m publishing the recipes we’ll be using here. The original recipe is in my book River Cottage Gluten Free, but I’ve made some adaptions for plant based diets, so you’ll find options for a full dairy version and plant based version below, with a pesto recipe that you can use, or go with store bought if that’s what you have.

We’ll be doing our cook along at 5pm British Summer Time (4pm UTC) on Saturday May 9th. If you’re making along with me, have your risotto ready made and cooled and your pesto ready (frozen if you’re doing the plant based version) I’ll show you how to form, breadcrumb and fry your arancini and answer your questions along the way!

Arancini

makes 18-20 small or 14-15 larger

These crisp coated, cheese and pesto filled balls of rice are supposedly just a cute way of using up yesterday’s risotto. However, it is definitely worth cooking up a batch of short grain rice in some plain stock if you don’t have leftovers. Feel free to improvise your own fillings but choose something strongly flavoured and include a piece of cheese that melts to get the classic oozing centre. I like to fry them because it does make for the crispest crust, but you can bake them too for a less decadent, but no less delicious version.

250g risotto rice (or about 700g leftover risotto)

1 litre chicken or vegetable broth

100g grated parmesan or pecorino or other strong cheese

6-7tsp basil pesto (see recipe)

50g mozzarella or any melty cheese

100g any gluten free flour

2 eggs

140g fine gluten free breadcrumbs

500g fat for frying

Bring stock to the boil in a saucepan, add saffron if using and then the rice. Bring back to the boil and then turn down and simmer gently until the rice is cooked and all the stock is absorbed. Stir in parmesan, check for seasoning and add salt if needed. Spread out on a plate and put in the fridge to chill completely. Alternatively, just use leftover risotto.

When the rice is chilled, you can make arancini. Pinch up a small apricot sized piece of rice and roll into a ball. Poke your finger into the ball and using a finger and thumb, make the ball into a little pinch pot with sides of an even thickness. Don’t go too thin or your pot will crack when you fill it.

Spoon in about 1/3 of a teaspoon of pesto and a thumbnail sized piece of mozzarella to fill the cavity. Pinch off another small piece of rice, flatten it and use this to patch the top of the pot and make the ball round again. Roll very gently and pop on a plate while you finish the rest of the mixture in the same way.

Get three bowls ready for coating the arancini. In the first put flour, in the second beaten egg and in the third, breadcrumbs.

Dip each rice ball first into flour to coat completely, then quickly, but thoroughly coat with egg. Finally, drop into the breadcrumbs and use a teaspoon to sprinkle crumbs over it and jiggle the bowl a bit, until you can pick it up to check the crumb coating is even. Set aside and repeat with the rest of the balls. They can now be chilled for up to 24 hours before you fry them. Don’t leave them any longer though because they contain cooked rice.

To fry, simply heat your fat in a deep-sided saucepan until a small cube of bread browns in a minute. Deep fry the arancini in batches, turning to make sure that they are evenly browned, if the fat doesn’t completely cover them. They are done when the crumbs are evenly golden brown.

Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm while you cook the rest.

Arancini (plant based)

makes 15

These crisp coated, pesto filled balls of rice are supposedly just a cute way of using up yesterday’s risotto. However, it is definitely worth cooking up a batch of short grain rice in some plain stock if you don’t have leftovers. Feel free to improvise your own fillings but choose something strongly flavoured and freeze in little balls as I do the pesto to get that classic oozing centre. I like to fry them because it does make for the crispest crust, but you can bake them too for a less decadent, but no less delicious version.

About 15tsp basil pesto (see recipe)

1 onion

Olive oil

250g risotto rice (or about 700g leftover risotto)

1 litre vegetable broth

Sea salt

2-4 tsp of nutritional yeast

2 tablespoons of ground linseed (flax) + 60-80ml of warm water

100g any gluten free flour

140g fine gluten free breadcrumbs

500g fat for frying

Make your pesto or mix some olive oil into store bought pesto to make it a little looser. Put scant teaspoonfuls on a parchment lined tray and put into the freezer to go completely hard.

Make the risotto while the pesto freezes. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil, finely dice the onion, add to the pan and gently sweat until soft and sweet – about 20 minutes. Add the rice to the pan, stir to coat with oil and then add the stock. Bring back to the boil and then turn down and simmer gently, stirring often until the rice is cooked and all the stock is absorbed. Check for seasoning and add salt and nutritional yeast to taste. Spread out on a plate and put in the fridge to chill completely. Alternatively, just use leftover risotto.

Mix together your ground linseed (flax) and warm water and set aside. You want this to have the texture of beaten egg, so when you come back to it later, you might need to add a little water to it.

Poke a frozen piece of pesto into the cavity, pinch off another small piece of rice, flatten it and use this to patch the top of the pot and make the ball round again. Roll very gently and pop on a plate while you finish the rest of the mixture in the same way. I tend to get a few pesto pieces out of the freezer at a time, so that they don’t go completely soft before I can use them. You can roll all the rice into balls first to make this bit quicker. If your risotto is not as sticky as you would like, stir a little tapioca starch or other starch in, to firm it up and make it more sticky.

Get three bowls ready for coating the arancini. In the first put flour, in the second the linseed/flax mixture and in the third, breadcrumbs.

Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm while you cook the rest. Eat the day you fry them and make sure that your rice is not more than 48 hours old from the first time you cooked it up as risotto.

Pesto

Pesto Genovese is always made with basil, parmesan and pine nuts, but it’s possible to make pesto with any combination of dark leaves, hard cheese (or not) and nuts for a huge variety of different flavours. The flavour of the leaf and good olive oil should be dominant, rather than garlic or cheese. If you want to make this dairy free, just swap out the cheese for a little sauerkraut and some nutritional yeast, or just leave it out. If you do leave out the cheese, you’ll need more salt and acidity to compensate.

60g pine nuts or walnuts or cashews or hazelnuts

½ - 1 clove of garlic

pinch of salt (more if you have left out cheese)

30g parmesan or pecorino finely grated (or replace with 10g nuts, 20g sauerkraut and 5-10g nutritional yeast)

60g basil leaves (or a mixture of wild garlic, rocket and basil)

80ml olive oil

a squeeze of lemon juice or a little rice vinegar

If you’re using pinenuts or cashews, use these raw, for other nuts, toast gently in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for about 10-15 minutes until they smell delicious. Be careful not to let them burn. Tip onto a plate and allow to cool.

Mash the garlic to a paste with the flat of a knife on a chopping board and put into a mortar with the nuts, crushing them a little. If you are using rocket, chop it finely and add this and the other herbs to the mortar a bit at a time with a slosh of olive oil, grinding and adding more leaves and oil as the leaves break down. If you’re using sauerkraut in place of cheese, add this too and smoosh it down. When the mixture looks the right texture, stir in the pecorino (or nutritional yeast) and taste for salt and acidity. As pecorino is less acidic than parmesan, if the flavour needs brightening, add some lemon juice or vinegar.

If you like, all of this can be done with a stick blender or in a food processor. You’ll get a more homogenous texture, but it will take a fraction of the time!

Scrape into a jar and cover with olive oil to keep out the air. It should keep for several weeks as long as everything is below the oil.