SWEET SPELT ARANCINI WITH GRAPES

Prep time: 15 minutes, plus soaking and chilling time Cook time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 4

Arancini is traditionally a savoury dish made with leftover risotto but it works equally well as a dessert. I’ve used pearled spelt for this but you can use risotto rice in exactly the same way and vary the flavourings, adding mixed spice or other dried fruits. The vines in my garden didn’t produce an awful lot of grapes this year and they were pretty small, so I thought I’d add them to a sauce for my sweet arancini.

INGREDIENTS

– 90g pearled spelt, soaked for 3-4 hours in cold water then drained

– 400ml milk

– 50g granulated sugar – 60g raisins, soaked in 200ml hot water overnight – 30g fresh white

breadcrumbs

– 30g flaked almonds,

chopped

– 50g flour

– 1 large egg, beaten – vegetable or

corn oil for frying

For the sauce

– 100ml red wine

– 50g granulated sugar – 2 tsp cornflour

– 50g small seedless

green or black grapes

METHOD

Put the drained spelt in a saucepan with the milk and sugar, bring to the boil, then simmer very gently on a low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

Add the raisins and their soaking liquid and continue simmering for another 30 minutes or until the spelt is tender and the liquid has all been absorbed. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, stirring now and then as it cools, then refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.

To make the sauce, place the wine, sugar and 100ml water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Mix the cornflour with a little water and stir it into the sauce, simmer gently for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. Stir in the grapes.

Shape the spelt mixture into 12 even-sized balls. Stir the breadcrumbs and almonds together in a shallow bowl or container. Toss the spelt balls in the flour, shaking off any excess, then coat them in the beaten egg and finally the breadcrumb mixture, shaking off any excess.

Heat about 8cm of oil in a large, thick-bottomed saucepan or deep-fat fryer to 160-180C. Fry the arancini in a couple of batches (depending on the size of your pan or fryer), turning them with a slotted spoon, for 2-3 minutes until golden.

Arrange the arancini on serving plates and spoon the grape sauce around.