Another Reason Why the Italians Get it Right

For years my favorite wine country restaurant has been Tra Vigne.  The dining room is large, square, warmly lit and flanked by a stunning wood bar on one side and on the other, tall windows that on a beautiful afternoon open and overlook a few grapevines nestling up to Highway 29 in St. Helena.  Looking back, this was probably my first brush with a celebrity chef dining experience, and Michael Chiarello had me at ragu.  I have been lucky to enjoy numerous meals there where I've savored dishes like his pecorino budino with asparagus (a recipe I had to have and asked the waiter for on one occasion - much to my surprise, he gave it to me - uh, pre-super highway), his brined and braised short ribs over polenta (which is now my go to short rib recipe - Sorry TK), and his pappardelle with rabbit ragu.  Though I have tried many dishes at Tra Vigne, these three are embedded in my memory and on my palate as among the best things I've eaten.   

Fast forward past MC's Napa Style, his early food shows on PBS and subsequent transition to Food Network, to Top Chef Masters (where he sadly demonstrated a little too much of the celebrity chef arrogance that we hear afflicts so many), to his latest restaurant: Bottega, and the cookbook it spawned.  This book was the recent selection for our cookbook club at work where each of us selected a dish to contribute to an office potluck lunch.

I selected Pesto Arancini Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella, and they were fantastic.  They were a little time-consuming (what is with these celebrichefs and the time they have on their hands to spend days preparing a single dish?!), calling for leftover risotto from the day before, if possible, then assembly where you wrap the risotto around small hunks of cheese and shape into balls, followed by a brief visit to the freezer, gentle dredging in the breading, and culminating in a quick dip in boiling oil.  Thank goodness I had already made the pesto during the summer and only had to defrost it!

The real beauty of these little delights is not the blurry photo above (which I did not take), but that you can make them the day before, reheat them in about 15 minutes and they come right back.  The crispy panko bread crumb exterior gives way to toothy risotto with a bright pesto flavor, ending with  a delicate and stretchy cheesy center.  They're worth each and every step and minute required.  Plus, they make a great appetizer, OR a filling and delicious vegetarian lunch served with a salad, OR an unexpected accompaniment to herb roasted pork tenderloin and salad for dinner.  And I know this because I had enough risotto and pesto for a double recipe, so I managed to have them all three ways in the course of about five days.  Yum!