Arancini di riso
Rice balls or rice croquettes
Italian arancini or rice balls or rice croquettes is one of the most famous Sicilian recipe in the world. Rice hides a tasty and soft filling. Here's the traditional recipe according to the Sicilian cuisine. But we also suggest some variations if you don't find the original ingrendients.

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- 200g (7 ounces) minced beef
- 2 cups of "farsumagru" cooking juice
- 100g (3 1/2 ounces) canestrato (matured Sicilian cheese)
- 55g (2 ounces) grated Pecorino cheese (matured ewe's cheese)
- 500g (1.1 pound) rice
- 3 eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Plain dried breadcrumbs
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Lard
- Salt
- Time:
preparation: 40 minutes
cooking: 45 minutes
total: 1 h 25 minutes - Difficulty:
medium difficulty recipe - Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: n.c. (kCal) - n.c. (kJ)
Protein: n.c. (g)
Total fat: n.c. (g)
Total carbohydrate: n.c. (g)
Sugars: n.c. (g)
Arancini or rice ball or rice croquette recipe
Let minced beef cook in the "farsumagru" cooking juice for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile cook the rice in salted water until "al dente" stage according to the instructions on the package.
Cube the canestrato (a matured Sicilian cheese).
Drain the rice very well and pour in a large bowl.
Dress the rice with 2 beaten eggs and grated ewe's cheese (Pecorino cheese).
Stir all the ingredients accurately.
Let the rice cool.
Then take a handful of it, make a hollow in the centre, stuff liberally with the meat sauce and a cheese cube and close it up to make a spherical shape, the size of a tennis ball (or a little orange).
Beat the remaining egg in a plate and prepare another plate with all-purpose flour and a third plate with plain dried breadcrumbs.
Dip every rice ball into the beaten egg, then into flour and finally into plain dried breadcrumbs.
Let them fry lightly in a mixture of lard and extra virgin olive oil until golden.
Take away from the frying pan and put them on absorbent kitchen paper to absorb the excess of fat.
Serve at once.
But if you prepare them in advance, you have to bake at 230°C (450°F) for few minutes before serving them.
Note
- - You can accompany this kind of rice croquettes with a seasonal salad or another side dish for a complete meal. You can prepare them for a buffet too.
- - We don't use "farsumagru" cooking juice; we make another meat sauce. In a pan we put:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 200 g (7 oz) minced veal, 150 g (5 1/2 oz) puréed tomatoes, 1 tablespoon dried chives, a little young onion (finely chopped), 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon dried bay leaves, 1 200 g (7 oz) can drained peas, 150 ml (5 fl oz - 3/4 C) red wine, a pinch of salt. We don't add water and cook over a low heat until well retired. - - We often use cubed mozzarella cheese instead of canestrato.
- - We fry rice croquettes only in extra virgin olive oil whitout lard.
- - It's very difficult to have the real amount of the oil and lard used for frying and the amount of white flour and plain dried breadcrumbs. Another ingredient whose nutrition facts can vary a lot is farsumagru cooking juice. For all these reasons we couldn't calculate nutrition facts of the traditional recipe but we calculated nutrition facts of our version (light version) without the ingredients for frying (plain dried breadcrumbs, white flour and olive oil).
kCal 499 - kJ 2087 - Protein 24.5 - Total fat 15.2 - Total carbohydrates 70.3 - Sugars 2.7
What's the right wine for " Rice croquettes or riso arancini - Recipe from Sicily " ?
Our suggestion is to match arancini with a typical Sicilian wine such as Etna Rosso (red wine).
