This delicious rice timbale with Margherita pizza flavor, with tomato, mozzarella and basil, recalls the timeless pizza. It’s a smart recipe to recycle any type of leftover risotto, unless you want to use it to make Roman-style cheesy rice suppli’.
It’s the quickest and most improvised dinner I’ve ever made, so I want to share with you this tasty recipe loved by everyone in the family. You just need leftover risotto, even from the day before, a baking dish about 10 1/4 in x 7 1/2 in and you’ll get 4 generous portions of Margherita-style rice timbale.
Try it with other toppings — those you’d normally put on pizza — and the result will be equally amazing.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 Servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked risotto (about 3–4 cups of leftover cooked risotto)
- 1 2/3 cups tomato passata (or peeled canned tomatoes)
- 5 oz mozzarella (about 5 oz (≈150 g))
- to taste basil (fresh)
- to taste olive oil and breadcrumbs
Preparation
Use a ready-made risotto you have prepared, of any flavor. I had about 4 cups of leftover risotto with zucchini and tomato and I used it as the base for this rice timbale. If you make it specifically for this recipe, let it cool in the fridge for several hours before spreading it into the baking dish.
Brush the baking dish with a little oil and sprinkle it with breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess. Spread the risotto evenly on the base of the dish and flatten it well with a spoon. Pour the seasoned tomato (with oil and salt) on top and level it, as you would when making a pizza.
Preheat the oven to 392°F and bake the dish with the rice for 15 minutes. In the meantime, chop the mozzarella and set it aside.
After 15 minutes of baking, take the timbale out of the oven, add the mozzarella and bake again for another 5 minutes. Serve sprinkled with chopped fresh basil.
