In fact, come to think of it, the wedge of cheese you see here (peccorino toscano), was also a "remainder" at my favorite cheese store in Seattle, "Big John's Pacific Food Importers." They always prefer to cut cheese by the pound, but occasionally have a "light" pound hanging around.... As we were waiting in line to check out, one of the attentive service persons asked if she could get anything out of the cold case, I only had to think for a moment, and asked if there were any "pecorino toscano" already cut (i.e. left-over). She kind of felt around the case (I didn't realize it was right up front near our knees), and said "we have this piece of medium"--to which I said, "we'll take it, thank you." No hesitation there!
These nibbles came together while waiting for the oven to warm up for pizza, and was a very satisfying starter.
It had been a very long time since I'd made supplì (fried risotto balls), namely because I rarely make fried anything these days! But, risotto is the exception that proves the rule, and I find myself desiring to capture that wonderful creamy, cheesy, rice inside a crispy, crunchy shell more than anything else I can imagine.
To make these, all I did for setup was to form the prepared risotto into balls about 1.5" (6 cm.) in diameter; since it was "alla Milanese," it was flavored with saffron and also had green peas. I chose not to put little chunks of cheese in the center of each ball (supplì al telefono-Romani), because I was doing this project "on the fly" (and frankly didn't want to waste the cheese if they didn't turn out...). Next I put a pan of vegetable/olive oil on the stove to heat and gently tossed the supplì in a quart baggie of fine bread crumbs (made from the insides of our weekday sandwich rolls). When the oil seemed hot enough, I put the supplì into the pan, and fried them until they were the lovely golden brown color you see in the photo.
That was it! The frittata of the week that I also served was zucchini, tomato, and black olive. Those wedges were straight out of the fridge (and a nice texture/temperature contrast for the supplì. The strawberries I used to garnish came from the garden. All very simple really, and put together in 20-30 min. at the most. My wife had the glass of crisp bubbly prosecco; I had my typical Berlioni variant: Cynar, sweet vermouth, orange-infused vodka, and San Pellegrino chinotto (with a twist of orange). Fantastico!
