You may have heard of Sicilian arancini: fried, stuffed rice balls found in some Italian restaurants. Originally from Sicily, they can now be found in fast food outlets across Italy, often of average quality. It’s easy for them to give you a very heavy rice paste and not particularly tasty, but it’s not the Arancino’s fault. It’s as if foreigners visiting Spain appreciate paella for the yellow rice tapa with things they got in a crappy bar: any resemblance between this and the Valencian dish is fantasy. Today I’m going to tell you how to make an arancina worthy of the Gattopardo, with ingredients that go well together, such as pistachios and mortadella.
Arancina or Arancino?
If I don’t explain that, my friends in Palermo will stop bringing me capers from Salina: these balls should be called arancine, feminine. It’s not that gender has reached Essen (yet): it’s that Sicily has Arancino and Arancina. The substance, I daresay, is the same: a risotto dough with filling that is breaded and fried. It’s the shape that makes the difference: if it’s conical, then you undoubtedly have an Arancino in front of you and you’re probably in Catania. If it’s round, you’re in the Palermo area to the west and it’s an arancina. It might seem like a small detail, but it earns you extra points when you meet a Sicilian.
The tricks for the perfect arancina
The basis of the arancino – round or conical, binary or non-binary – is a risotto. Although originally it might have been a utility recipe; and so that you can keep doing it when you have leftover rice, the end result will be better if you specifically prepare the rice. So first cook the risotto half as long so that it can finish cooking later when frying the Arancino without ending up in a paste. The rice should be slightly whole, for this it is important that it is a rice with good resistance, such as Carnaroli.
Although we will cook the risotto for half as long (about nine minutes), we will finish it as if it were done by mixing the butter and parmigiano: this way it will remain creamy after frying. Shaping the arancino requires some skill: I recommend working with wet hands. Take a batch of rice, spread it out in your hand, add the filling – the amount should be no more than a heaping teaspoon – and start helping yourself, adding more rice. If you cook a lot or have an irrepressible need to have another pot in your kitchen, you can get an arancinotto: it’s a mold for arancino and arancina, big and small, and the truth is, it gets the job done much easier.
For the filling, in this case I chose a Galician Arzúa Ulloa cheese: it fits very well in recipes of this type because it melts well, has a fresh taste and has a slightly acidic note. You can use any other cheese that doesn’t have too much flavor, like mozzarella, provolone, or any lightly aged cow’s cheese. The mortadella – the Italian one, please with a double L – would be phenomenal diced, but you have to buy it at the deli and ask for a finger-thick slice. If you can’t, just buy the one found in shells and chop it up with a knife.
Once you’ve formed your balls, it’s time to hit. Many recipes indicate the use of eggs, in a classic dough flour + egg + breadcrumbs. Following the instructions of my sensei from Palermo, I prefer to use a mixture of flour and water and then the breadcrumbs, leaving out the egg. The dough is lighter and crispier as well as simpler. Finally, when frying, the oil should be between 160°C and 180°C so that the cheese in the filling can melt. Over-frying would burn the batter without reaching the middle of the rice.
difficulty
Rice ball forming will be your new important challenge.
Ingredients
For 6 arancine
For the pistachio risotto
- 300 g round rice if it is better for risotto (e.g. a carnaroli)
- 1/2 small onion or a shallot
- Extra virgin olive oil
- vegetable or chicken broth (optional)
- 25 grams of butter
- 50g grated Parmigiano or Grana Padano
- 50g chopped pistachios (2 generous tablespoons)
- 25 g chopped pistachios (1 generous tablespoon)
For the filling
- 75-100 g Italian Mortadella (diced is better)
- 100 g slightly matured cow cheese (preferably one of the Arzúa Ulloa variety)
- Next to
- Flour
- breadcrumbs
- oil for frying
Preparation
Prepare the base risotto at least a few hours in advance. To calm down, it can be done the day before.
Heat the broth or water in a saucepan with a pinch of salt. The amount required is less than that of a regular risotto as we don’t finish cooking it. If you want to use broth but don’t want to waste it, I recommend using the same amount as rice (300 grams) and if more liquid is needed, continue with lightly salted water.
Chop the onion and sauté lightly in a pan with a little olive oil. Add the rice and let it heat up well in the pan, it will take a few minutes. Gradually add the hot liquid, stock or water and bring the risotto to half cook. That is, if a risotto takes about 18 minutes to prepare, cook it until about 9 p.m.
When it’s half-cooked and the rice is fairly dense — and has a fairly hard top — turn off the heat. Add butter and grated cheese and mix well. Finally add the crushed and chopped pistachios, mix well and spread the risotto on a plate or tray to cool evenly.
When the rice is very cold, shape the arancine. With wet hands, take an amount of rice that fits in your hand and flatten it. Put two or three cubes of cheese and mortadella in the middle and start closing the rice over the filling by closing your hand. Add more rice on top and give it a round shape.
Once all the balls are formed, prepare the dough and heat the oil in a deep saucepan.
In a deep plate, mix a couple of tablespoons of flour with water: the consistency should be quite runny, like a beaten egg. Put breadcrumbs on another plate. Pass the balls first through the flour-water mastic, and then through the breadcrumbs.
Fry the arancine in hot oil — no less than 160C and no more than 180C if you can measure it — for five or seven minutes, until golden brown. Drain well and serve.
If you make this recipe, share the result on your social networks with the hashtag #RecipesComidista. And if it goes wrong, complain to the Defender of the Cook by sending an email to [email protected].