You may have already heard of the arancini Sicilians: stuffed and fried rice balls found in some Italian food places. Originally from Sicily, you can now find them all over Italy in fast food places, often of average quality. It is easy for them to give you a very heavy rice paste and not particularly tasty, but it is not the fault of the arancino. It is as if foreigners visiting Spain value paella for the tapa of yellow rice with things they have been given in a crappy bar: any resemblance between that and the Valencian dish is fantasy. Today I will tell you how to make an arancina worthy of the Gattopardo, with ingredients that go well with each other, such as pistachio and mortadella.
Arancina or arancino?
If I don’t explain this, my friends in Palermo won’t bring me capers from Salina again: these balls should be called arancine, feminine. It is not that the gender issue has reached food (not yet): it is that in Sicily there are arancino and arancina. The substance, I dare say, is the same: a risotto dough, with filling, that is battered and fried. It is the shape that makes the difference: if it is conical, then what you have in front of you is undoubtedly an arancino, and you are probably in Catania. If it is round, you are in the area of Palermo, to the west, and it is an arancina. It may seem like a minor detail, but it will give you extra points when you meet a Sicilian.
The tricks for the perfect arancina
The base of the arancino -round or conical, binary or non-binary- is a risotto. Although originally it could be a recipe for use; and so you can continue doing it if you have rice left over, the final result will be better if you make the rice expressly. So the first thing is to cook the risotto half the time, so that later, when frying the arancino, it can finish cooking without ending up in paste. The rice should be a bit whole, for that it is important that it be a rice with good resistance like a Carnaroli.
Although we cook the risotto for half the normal time (about nine minutes) we will finish it as if it were done, mixing butter and Parmigiano: this way, once fried, it will remain creamy. Forming the arancino requires a bit of skill: I recommend working with wet hands. Take a quantity of rice, spread it out in your hand, put the filling -the quantity should not be more than a heaped teaspoon- and begin to close helping yourself with your hand and adding more rice. If you want to make many, or have an irrepressible need to have another pot in your kitchen, you can get a arancinotto: it is a mold for arancino and arancina, large and small, and the truth is that it makes the job much easier.
For the filling, in this case I have chosen a Galician Arzúa-Ulloa type cheese: it works very well in recipes of this type because it melts well, has a fresh flavor and a slightly acid touch. You can use any other cheese with a not too strong flavor, such as mozzarella, provolone, or any mildly aged cow’s cheese. The mortadella -The Italian, double L, please- would be great cubed, but for that you have to buy them at the delicatessen asking for a slice to be cut one finger wide. If you can’t do it, simply buy the one found in trays and chop it with a knife.
Once you have formed your balls, it’s time to batter. Many recipes indicate the use of eggs, in a classic batter 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, skipping the egg. The batter is lighter and crunchier, as well as being easier. Finally, when frying the oil should be between 160ºC and 180ºC, so that the cheese in the filling can melt. Too strong frying would burn the batter without reaching the center of the rice.
Difficulty
Forming rice balls will be your new vital challenge.
Ingredients
For 6 arancine
For the pistachio risotto
- 300 g of round rice, if it is for risotto better (for example a Carnaroli)
- 1/2 small onion or a shallot
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Vegetable or chicken broth (optional)
- 25g butter
- 50 g grated Parmigiano or Grana Padano
- 50g crushed pistachios (2 generous tablespoons)
- 25g chopped pistachios (1 generous tablespoon)
For the filling
- 75-100g of mortadella Italian (better cubed)
- 100 g of slightly cured cow’s cheese (one of the Arzúa Ulloa type is great)
- Besides
- Flour
- Bread crumbs
- oil for frying
Preparation
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Prepare the base risotto at least a couple of hours in advance. To go calmer it can be done the day before.
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Heat the broth or water with a little salt in a saucepan. The necessary amount is less than that of a normal risotto, since we will not finish cooking it. If you want to use broth, but you don’t want to waste it, I recommend that you use the same amount as rice (300 grams) and if more liquid is needed, continue with slightly salty water.
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Chop the onion and lightly fry it in a pan with a little olive oil. Add the rice and let it heat up well in the stir-fry, it will take a couple of minutes. Add the hot liquid, broth or water, little by little and bring the risotto to half cooking. That is, if a risotto takes about 18 minutes to make, cook it until nine or so.
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When it is halfway cooked, and the rice is quite dense -and with a rather hard point- turn off the heat. Add the butter and grated cheese and mix well. At the end, add the crushed and chopped pistachios, mix well, and spread the risotto on a platter or tray so that it cools evenly.
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When the rice is very cold, form 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 center and begin to close the rice over the filling, closing your hand. Add more rice above and give it a round shape.
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Once all the balls are formed, prepare the batter and heat the oil in a deep saucepan.
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In a deep plate, mix a few tablespoons of flour with water: the texture should be quite runny, like a beaten egg. On another plate put breadcrumbs. Pass the balls first through the flour and water mastic and then through the breadcrumbs.
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Fry the arancine in hot oil -not less than 160ºC and not more than 180ºC, if you can measure it- for five or seven minutes, until they are well golden. 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].
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