Arancini Balls Recipe with Tomato and Red Pepper Dipping Sauce - Blogtastic Food (2024)

You want to know how you can take arancini up a notch? Fill them with goats cheese, then dip them in a spicy tomato and red pepper dipping sauce. I guarantee that your guests will just want to keep coming back for more.

There couldn’t possibly be a better way to use up leftover risotto. Oh, and if you need a risotto recipe to make for these arancini balls, then use my Herby Risotto Recipe. Don’t worry about the pan seared duck if it doesn’t interest you, as it isn’t relevant to this recipe.

The cheesy middle

Usually, arancini has a bit of fresh mozzarella in the middle, so when you open it up you can see that stringy cheese. Why did I use goats cheese instead this time? Honestly, there is no reason other than I wanted to try something different.

Mozzarella gives and nice melty, stringy texture inside, whereasgoats cheese is more creamy and soft. Feel free to experiment with whatever cheese you want, however, just know that a little goes a long way. 1 little teaspoons worth is more than enough.

And if you really don’t like the idea of adding the cheese and the risotto filling is enough for you, this is totally fine.

Double coating the rice balls

The first time I made this dish, some of the rice oozed out of the arancini. And for the best arancini ball, you want the rice and cheese filling to be nicely sealed in. The way to do this is to simply double coat your arancini balls when you panee them (coat them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs).

So you would dip the rice balls in flour, then in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs, back in the egg again and then coat in the second layer of breadcrumbs. You don’t have to give the arancini balls the second coating. It just means some of the filling might break out of a few of the arancini balls if you don’t, but it isn’t a huge deal in my opinion.

Using leftover dipping sauce

Now this recipe calls for quite a bit of dipping sauce, but if you are a constant dunker (like me) then you may be surprised by just how fast the dipping sauce can disappear. So I think it’s worth making plenty.

However, what do you do if you have a lot of leftover dipping sauce? You could just keep it in the fridge if you think you’ll use it again. Or, you can use it to coat your pasta!! And it works perfectly because the dipping sauce has a saucy texture more so that a paste-like texture.

Freezing and re-heating the arancini balls

So, I tested this out. I froze an arancini ball, I took it out of the freezer a few days later, pre-heated my oven to about 200 degrees C, then I reheated the arancini ball in the oven for 20 minutes. It actually turned out really well! Now, arancini balls are always going to be their best when they are served right after being deep fried, but if you have leftovers, this is the best way to keep them and re-heat them.

If you care about retaining as much quality as possible, avoid re-heating your arancini balls in the microwave. Re-heating deep-fried products in a microwave will just make them go soggy. Also, try not to leave the arancini balls out of the freezer for too long before re-heating them, because the water content can melt over the arancini and again, can make the outside go soggy.

Thank you so much for reading through my post, and I highly encourage you to make these arancini balls. Especially if you have leftover risotto. Feel free to subscribe to stay updated for new posts and to receive a free ebook featuring 10 amazing recipes.

Much love to you all, see you in the next one!