During our trip to Sicily last year, we ate a lot of pasta, pizza, and cannolis.
Of course, that was expected. While my impression of Sicilian food was not overly enthusiastic, what I did love was that you could walk into pretty much any cafe and order some arancini to go. Arancini are the perfect street food. They’re deep fried balls of rice stuffed with different fillings, the most typical of which is ground beef, tomatoes, mozzarella, and peas.
Served to you wrapped in parchment paper, you can walk out onto the street and finish your appetizer before getting to the end of the block. At least that’s what we did on more than one occasion.
During our one week stay at the villa, we found a cafe that made our favorite arancini less than a mile away. Whenever we’d return home from our day’s adventure, we would drop someone off at the cafe, have them order and wait for the arancini to be made fresh while the rest of us went back to shower and get ready for dinner. They’d be back at the villa just in time for appetizers to be served, and we’d all dig in.
Recreating this classic Italian appetizer has been on my list since we got back (and enthusiastically supported by Jason). This week, we got to work. I cooked the arborio rice, typically used to make risotto, and let it cool. Together, we made the filling: browning some meat with tomatoes, peas, Parmesan and adding a healthy amount of parsley to the mix.
Then Jason took over the hard work. In order to make the arancini, you need to get your hands wet. You mash the rice into a cup in the palm of your hand, then top it with the meat filling and a little mozzarella. Then, you add more rice and use your hands to make a perfect ball shape, making sure no filling is leaking out the sides.
This takes a little bit of practice, so don’t be surprised if your first arancini is not quite as perfect as your last. We found that the more we made, the thinner we could get the rice and the more stuffing we could put inside. Regardless, we still ended up with quite a bit of leftover filling, but no complaints there, as it’s good to eat on its own.
Once you’ve got all your arancini formed, you’ll roll them in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs before throwing them into some very hot olive oil to fry.
Let them drain slightly onto a paper towel and then dig in. I recommend picturing yourself on a little street hiking up to an ancient Sicilian castle or playing bocce while eating these.
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1½ cups arborio rice, dry
- 3½ - 4½ cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- pinch of saffron
- ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- salt to taste
- 1 egg, whisked
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ⅔ lb ground beef
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cup peas, frozen or fresh
- ½ cup parsley, chopped
- ⅔ cup Parmesan, grated
- salt to taste
- 4 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 - 1½ cup all purpose flour
- 2 eggs, whisked
- 1 - 1½ cup bread crumbs
- olive oil for frying
- In a medium sized heavy bottomed saucepan, melt butter. Add rice, coat with butter, and let it toast for 3-5 minutes. Stir in ½ a cup of broth. When it starts to boil, add in garlic powder and saffron.
- Add broth, ½ a cup at a time, and stir until rice absorbs almost all the moisture. After about 3 cups of broth, taste rice. It should be al dente and have a little bit of chew. Continue with broth until you reach this consistency.
- Remove rice from heat, stir in Parmesan cheese. Add salt to taste.
- Let cool slightly, then add whisked egg, making sure to stir vigorously so egg doesn't just cook in a big lump.
- Spread rice out on a baking sheet and let cool completely.
- Heat olive oil in a medium sized skillet. Add ground beef and tomatoes and cook until meat has browned. Stir in peas, parsley, and Parmesan cheese. Add salt to taste.
- With wet hands, take about 3 tablespoons of cooled rice and form it into a ball in your hand, squeezing out any air pockets. Make an indentation in the middle and place as much filling as will fit. Top with a couple cubes of mozzarella.
- Take another ~2 tablespoons of rice and squeeze out any air pockets. Use this to make the top half of the ball. Shape into a sphere, adding a little more rice if needed, and set aside onto plate.
- Repeat this process until all rice is used up, washing hands in-between if they get too sticky. Note that you will likely have filling left over, depending on how thin you can get the rice layer.
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan, heat oil to 370F. You should use enough oil to fully submerge your arancini. If you don't have a thermometer, you can test by flicking a little bit of bread crumbs into the oil and seeing if it starts to fry.
- When you're ready to fry the arancini, dip the balls into flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Place immediately into hot oil and fry until the outside is a nice golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and let cool slightly.
This is only one of my favorite meals EVER!!! And yours looks absolutely fantastic!!! I have to make some of my own!! Thanks for the reminder!
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