Jennifer Maloney, Cafe Sebastienne

Jennifer Maloney, executive chef at Café Sebastienne in the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, boasts a career peppered with exotic ports of call and brushes with celebrity. She was a chef on a 115-foot schooner sailing throughout the Caribbean, worked with Mario Batali in Italy. Even now, she teaches young chefs in a culinary program during the Cannes Film Festival. But after so many years of excitement, she returned to Kansas City, where she first learned to love cooking while working pantry at The American Restaurant. She’s now been at Café Sebastienne for about 10 years.

The restaurant’s recipe for Arancini, which means “little oranges” in Italian, is one Maloney picked up while working in an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. She says it’s a Sicilian street food that’s easy to prepare ahead of time and serve to a large group of people.

“You can make them one-biters for an appetizer or make them an entrée,” she says. “Good comfort food.”

Arancini (little oranges)

Tomato sauce:
1 can plum tomatoes
1 diced yellow onion
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Arancini:
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup diced onion
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
4 cups warm chicken stock
1/2 cup fresh mozzarella
1/2 cup peas
1 egg
1 teaspoon chopped herbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Bread crumbs

For sauce, sauté onion and garlic; add tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for 20 minutes. Add basil at the end. For Arancini, sauté onion, garlic and rice; slowly add warm chicken stock until the rice has absorbed the broth. Let cool. In a medium bowl, mix 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, 1 egg, cooked rice, peas, herbs and fresh mozzarella; shape into balls, roll in bread crumbs and sauté until golden brown. Finish in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes.