As a child of Greek, Italian, and Eastern European heritage, celebrity chef Michael Symon knows the flavors of the Mediterranean. Thus, it’s no surprise Symon now owns a number of highly acclaimed restaurants, including Angeline, Symon’s “ode to Italian food,” which features perfectly cooked Sicilian specialties like arancini.

Arancini are stuffed rice balls that are typically made with fully-cooked risotto, and making risotto labor-intensive and extremely precise process in itself. Symon’s trick is to make the risotto the day before to serve as a meal first, with enough leftovers for arancini, thus breaking up the labor into bite-sized sections.

Symon learned the trick from his mother and grandmother, recalling, “When my mother or grandmother made risotto, they always made about twice as much as they needed. That way the next day we could have arancini.” In addition to parceling out the work, cooking the risotto a day early means all the delicious flavor has more time to soak in.