Arancini
Serves 4
500g freshly cooked Arborio rice
5 large eggs
80g of parmesan
1 tea spoon of unsalted butter
1 spoon of fresh parsley
100g of dried breadcrumbs
100g of plain flour
2 cups of peanut oil for frying the arancini
Left over Ragu
1 cup of cooked peas
60g of mozzarella
For the filling you should use any left overs from any ragu di carne tradizionale in this cookbook.
Remember many Italian dishes were created from left overs in our fridges.
How many house wives would ask the question: what can I do with a cup of peas? Or just few pieces of tuma? ( the traditional cheese from Sicily)
I certainly cannot through this wonderful ragu away!!!
And soon another dish was created!!!!
My advise to you is to make the ragu few days ago and plan to make the arancini a couple of days later. The success of all ragu are the time it takes to be ready. It is not the magic 30 minutes but certainly few hours are always necessary. So make it plenty and keep it in small quantities for that day you are feeling like arancini or a nice plate of pasta with ragu!
Prepare the rice.
Boil the rice in about 800ml of salted water. Keep adding some extra boiling water until you see the rice has absorbed all water that you added and is cooked.( you should need about 1 litre in total of water)
Transfer it into a bowl, let it cool slightly, and stir in the 2 beaten eggs, parmesan and butter. Let cool a little.
Cut the mozzarella into small cubes and combine it with the cooked peas. Add now some of the ragu.
With your hands slightly wet, mould the risotto into small little balls about the size of a mandarine ( traditional way) adding a small quantity of filling inside. I personally rather make them really small as it is more elegant for serving and less filling!
Beat the remaining 2 eggs, add salt, pepper and a hand full of chopped parsley.Place the arancino into the bowl of flour, then into the egg mixture and finally cover it with the breadcrumbs eliminating all the excess.
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the arancini and fry it until they are golden brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels. Before serving, place the arancini on a baking sheet and bake for few minutes in a preheated 180C oven.
Pastella for Arancini:
115g of farina di semola
1 egg white
Water
The secret of arancini is certainly how it is cooked, how it is fried! And no one fry better than the Sicilians. So here it is a secret I learn while there.
Make a little pastella by mixing the flour with some water making it sure it is very liquid. Then add the lightly beaten egg white and little more water.
If you are not confortable with the pastella then just make the old fashion way above.