Serves: 6-7
Prep: 1h
Cooking: 30 min
Last time I was at home in Italy, I spent a Saturday morning preparing Arancini with my mum, it was so much fun and so rewarding! Pointless to say that so many relatives stopped by as soon as they heard we were making arancini, they were gone in 5min... Arancini is a typical recipe from Sicily but it is very famous around whole Italy, they are very easy to make and you can change the filling as per your taste. Here the most typical of the recipes that puts risotto and bolognese together!
Mamma Flora’s tip: Prepare the arancini in advance and fry them on the moment
Ingredients: We need to make a risotto and a quick bolognese first in order to shape them in what we call Arancino.
For the risotto
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500g Vialone or Carnaroli rice
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1 spring onion
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1 saffron sachet
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30g butter
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1 carrot
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1 celery stem
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½ onion
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Parmesan
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Salt
For the Bolognese
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100g Minced beef
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50g minced pork
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200ml tomato passata
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80g peas
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⅓ onion cut in small pieces
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⅓ carrot cut in small pieces
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⅓ celery stem cut in small pieces
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2 tsbp oil
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⅓ glass of red wine
For the batter
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300 ml water
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200 g flour
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Salt
For the frying
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Bread crumbs
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Seed oil to fry
Method:
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Let’s prepare the broth, fill a small pot with water and add the peeled carrot, celery and ½ onion. Boil it for at least 10-15min before starting the risotto, add salt per taste, continue to boil at low heat while cooking the risotto
Risotto:
- Cut the spring onions in small pieces and place it in a pot with half the butter at very low heat, stir it often and make sure they don’t become brown (2-3min)
- Add the rice, toast it for 3-4 min, stir it often so it doesn’t stick to the pot
- As soon as the rice becomes dryer, add the first ladle of broth, don’t forget to stir. The rice will slowly absorb it
- Every time you see that the rice is getting dry, add a ladle of broth. Continue almost until the end of the cooking. If you need to top up some water in the broth, make sure it is warm, you can use the kettle
- Taste the rice after 15min of cooking, you want it to be al dente but not raw and remember the rice continues cooking after you turned the heat off. (It usually takes 18-20 min but check the suggested cooking time on the package)
- Finish the cooking and place the pot far from the heat. Add some grated parmesan and lay on a tray to form a this surface so that it cools down
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Cut the mozzarella in small cubes for later
Bolognese:
- Place the carrot, onion and celery finely chopped in the pot with the olive oil, gently heat for 7-8min
- Increase the heat to medium high and place the beef and pork in the pot and stir it with a wooden spoon until you see some brown color forming on the bottom of the pot (more or less 10min)
- Add the wine and let evaporate (3-4min)
- Add the tomato passata
- Cook at medium heat, salt it and leave to cook for 30min at least, stirring from time to time
When you have both prepared you can start making the arancini
- With your hands take some rice and form half a ball
- Place in the middle some bolognese with some mozzarella cubes and close the ball with some more rice
- You can also make them in the typical pyramid shape if you like
When you are ready to fry:
- Prepare the batter, mixing the flour and the water and a pinch of salt with a whisk
- In the meantime pour a glass and ½ of frying oil in a pot and bring to temperature (180 degrees)
- When the oil is ready to fry, pour delicately the arancini and fry until golden outside
- Enjoy warm!