Arancini (or rice balls), pride of Sicilian cuisine, are small timbales of rise, suitable to be consumed as a snack or as an appetizer, main course or as a main dish too. In Sicily you will find them anywhere and at any time, always warm and fragrant in many chip shops: from city to city their shape and size often change, assuming oval, pear-shaped or round features, depending on the filling, which is often varied. You can find rice balls with meat sauce, ham, cheese, ricotta and spinach … and so on!
Ingredients
- 1,300 kg of superfine rice (now you can find the rice only for arancini and casseroles). With these doses you can obtain about twenty arancini
- Three liters of meat stock or vegetable
- 1 onion
- 100 grams of butter
- 2 sachets of saffron (better in wires)
- 250 grams grated Parmesan
- 200 grams of diced “primo sale” cheese
- Seed oil for frying
- Bread crumbs
For the meat sauce
- 400 grams minced beef
- 1 onion
- 100 grams tomato paste
- 50 grams of grated Parmesan
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cloves
- 200 grams of fresh peas net of skins (frozen peas are fine too)
- Olive oil
- ½ cup of white wine
- Salt and pepper as you like