Italian rice balls: the sicilian recipe of arancini di riso

The rice balls, also called as arancini di riso, are a simple and tasty appetizer ideal to serve during a finger food dinner.
As well as meatballs, italian rice balls are very easy to prepare and, in some cases, even fun. Think just about the fact that they can be prepared with the help of little helpers. For rice balls you need very few ingredients that you can vary according to your taste, they will always be appetizing!
In addition, these delicious golden nuggets can also be made using some left-over risotto, in this way they will turn into a perfect recipe to not throw away anything!

How to make Italian Rice Balls

• Cook the rice in boiling salted water.
• Once cooked, place it in a bowl with butter and blend well. Add the chopped parsley,the grated Parmesan cheese, the egg, and abundant black pepper. Amalgamate everything well.

• Wet your hands with water or oil and then take a bit of the mixture to form the rice balls. The rice balls must be quite compact so as not to open during the cooking.
• Place them on a plate with breadcrumbs and make them roll uniformly. Then fry them taking care to turn them to make them brown on all sides.

• When they are golden brown, place them on a plate with oil-absorbing paper.
• Serve the hot rice balls.

Tips

In this recipe, we have just seen how the rice balls are fried in the end. For a lighter alternative, however, it is possible to finish the recipe by baking the reice balls at 200 degrees for about 25 minutes. In this way we will get an equally golden outer crust, although some may say it is not equally tasty. The fried is always better, you know.

Which breading to choose for rice balls?

The rice balls can be breaded simply by passing them in breadcrumbs or, if you are fond of very crispy breading, make a breading similar to that of Sicilian arancini. Here's to you how to proceed: first pass the rice balls in the flour, then in a slightly beaten egg and only as a last step in breadcrumbs. If you wish, you can repeat the last two steps again.

How to store, freeze and reheat italian rice balls

Italian rice balls can be pre-made and frozen or bought pre-cooked and frozen. It's not hard to reheat rice balls and you don't have to add fat by frying them again to make them crisp.