Arancini
Sicily · street · serves 8 · 180 min total · hard
Eastern Sicily makes them pointed (arancino, male, like Etna), western Sicily makes them round (arancina, female, like the fruit). Don't pick sides.
Ingredients
- 500 g risotto rice
- 1 pinch saffron threads
- 60 g butter
- 80 g Parmigiano Reggiano
- 1.5 L chicken broth
- 300 g ground beef and pork
- 150 g frozen peas
- 200 g tomato passata
- 1 medium onion
- 150 g flour
- 3 eggs eggs
- 250 g fine breadcrumbs
- 1 L frying oil
Method
- Toast rice in butter. Add saffron bloomed in a ladle of broth. Cook risotto-style, adding hot broth a ladle at a time, until al dente — about 18 minutes. Stir in Parmigiano. Spread on a tray to cool.
- Soffritto of diced onion. Brown meat. Add passata, simmer 25 minutes to a thick ragù. Stir in peas in the last 5 minutes.
- Wet your hands. Take a handful of cool rice, flatten in your palm, place a spoonful of ragù in the centre, seal into an orange-sized ball (this is the arancia — orange — that names them) or a Catanese pointed cone shape.
- Roll each in flour, dip in beaten egg, coat in breadcrumbs (twice for an armoured shell).
- Fry at 175°C (350°F) for 5–6 minutes until deep gold and crisp. Drain.
- Eat hot — the rice silky, the meat hot, the shell crackling.