As soon as Pim decided the theme for this new edition of Is My Blog Burning I knew what I wanted to make. I had a rice dish I'd been wanting to try out for months and I only needed an excuse. The last few days have been so busy (as you might have noticed from the lack of posts) that I almost didn't get a chance to make what I wanted, but in the end I managed to. I did finish 10 minutes ago though.
The dish I made is a Sicilian speciality: arancine al sugo. Arancine, or arancini, to put it simply, are stuffed rice balls, covered in bread crumbs and deep fried. The name means little oranges and they're meant to remind of the fruit for their size, shape (in most cases and colour. Today arancine are made with a number of fillings but the original ones are the ones "al sugo". There are probably as many recipes for this dish as there are Sicilian families. The shape can vary: round or conic. The rice can be cooked with the absorption method or like a risotto, with or without saffron. The stuffing can also vary a lot: a special tomato sauce, ragu, is a constant, but small peas, bechamel sauce, cheese can be added or not. Looking at a few recipes and following my own taste I put together my own recipe. I decided to stay true to the "little oranges" idea and made mine round and with saffron.
I started yesterday making ragu. Ragu comes from the French ragout but has come to have a special meaning in southern Italian cooking: a rich tomato sauce with meat, cooked for a long time. In the classical recipes the tomato comes in as strattu (in Sicily) or conserva (in Naples), a sun dried tomato concentrate: missing that a normal concentrate will do. For the ragu I used:
400 g (14 oz) pork shoulder, or other cut for braising, in one piece
4 Tbs red wine
1 medium onion, finely chopped
200 g (7 oz) tomato triple-concentrate
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt
Chose a pot just slightly bigger than your piece of meat. Heat olive oil and onion over medium heat till the onions start to sizzle. Add the meat and sear on all sides till golden brown, remove. Add the wine to the onions left in the pot and once the alcohol has evaporated add the concentrate. Pour some hot water in the pot to dilute the concentrate to a more fluid consistence, about 1 glass will do. Add salt with moderation (I added 2 tsp plus more at the end) and place the meat in the pot once more. The sauce should cover the meat. If it doesn't, add a bit more water. Cook over low heat, partially covered, at least 3 hours at a lazy bubble, or, as the Neapolitan say pippiando, i.e. a bubble every few seconds and not more. The sauce should be quite thick at the end so if after 2 hours the sauce looks still runny remove the lid completely. At the end taste, eventually correct the salt and let cool. Keep for following day. This makes a lot more than needed for the arancini. Use the rest as pasta sauce, for lasagne, gnocchi and similar.
The next day, today that is, I started making a saffron risotto with 500 grams (just over a pound) of arborio rice. Meanwhile I cooked a few frozen peas in a little butter. Once the rice was done I spread it on a large plate and let it cool. In this time I removed some of the ragu meat and chopped it finely. I also diced some cheese: I used scamorza but actually a young caciocavallo or provolone would be better. In the end I put my so called "mise en place" together.
Above: ragu sauce, chopped meat, peas and cheese. In the big red plate the cooled rice.
To assemble the arancini I first took a handful of rice, flattened it and started placing the filling in the middle: sauce, meat, peas and cheese (as seen below). On top of that came some more sauce and another, somewhat smaller handful of rice. I pressed the rice around the filling to get a sort of ball, trying to avoid filling leaks. With the amount of rice I had I made 8 arancine.
The arancine then got a coating of beaten egg and bread crumbs. Once coated the arancine are ready to be fried but it is better to wait some time and to cool them before doing so. For this reason I put my finished arancine (in one layer, to avoid them getting squished) in the fridge.
I removed them from the fridge about 30 minutes before frying, to bring them a bit back to temperature. I then heated enough oil for the arancine to float in (about 2 litres) and fried them a little at the time, to avoid cooling the oil too much, till the crust was golden brown.
As with any deep-fried dish these are best eaten straight away. In this way the crust will be deliciously crispy, the rice and filling hot and the cheese melted. One Is actually a meal by itself but I never manage to eat less than three :-)).
edited on Monday 24th May while breakfasting on a cold arancina. Yep, I like them even cold.
Oh. My. God. Picture me, sitting here, still full from dinner, yet, drooling over this entry. Those sound so delicious, Alberto! And, as my mom would say, there is nothing that cannot be improved, even slightly by frying it. This is a dish I would love to attempt, complicated though it sounds.
Posted by: Jennifer | May 24, 2004 at 03:00 AM
What a lovely reminder of a great vacation! Ever since I tasted my first arancine in Sicily last May I was determined to make them, but haven't so far. Your recipe sounds and looks great, I'll definitely try this. Thanks!
Posted by: Dana | May 24, 2004 at 09:58 AM
What a fascinating recipe! It sounds delicious, too...thanks!
Posted by: Meg in Paris | May 24, 2004 at 12:27 PM
Alberto, those look delicious. I was very close to making them myself. I never heard of cone-shaped ones (are they still called arancini, or Italian for "little traffic cones"?).
Posted by: Josh | May 24, 2004 at 01:54 PM
What a wonderful, unusual and sensuous dish! I'm tempted to try it, but I have to first get over the idea of using risotto in this extravagant way. I will let you know when I am courageous enough to turn precious saffron risotto into balls and send them to a deep-fry!
Posted by: Theresa | May 24, 2004 at 02:07 PM
Wow... that's it... wow! Definitely need to add this to my repertoire. Wow!
Posted by: Donna in Harrisburg | May 24, 2004 at 03:26 PM
Alberto these look fabulous, you cooked one of my all-time favorite foods! I have made these a few times, once with some success but felt the recipe could use tweaking so the next time I made them I used a different recipe and they were not really that great. Your recipe looks terrific, and you make them just like how I love to eat them, with carne and piselli, I will be using your recipe next time around. Thanks!
Posted by: Deb | May 24, 2004 at 03:33 PM
wow, Alberto, these look fabulous! if I wasn't so intimidated with the idea of cooking risotto, I would make this in a jiffy.
simply love the idea of rice balls with meat, sauce and cheese filling! wow!
in the old days (before my time at least ; ) ), in South East Asia, chicken rice balls were very commonly sold from street stalls... a ball of compacted chicken rice and I'm told it was delicious... people still reminesce about those good ol' days and those good ol' chicken rice balls... now, in our more "civilised" age, we unfortunately only eat chicken rice from a plate : (
Posted by: Renee | May 24, 2004 at 03:47 PM
Jennifer, thanks. Is your mom Scottish BTW ;-)? A Scottish friend told me exactly the same thing when I was in the UK, but I still don't have the guts to eat fried mars bars :-))).
Dana, I fell in love with arancine in Sicily too (actually with Sicilain cooking in general): I perfectly know what you mean. In Naples, where I come from, arancine are quite common but never manage to taste as good as the Sicilian ones. Good luck with trying them out.
Meg: Thank you!
Josh, :-) no, the cone shaped ones are still called arancine. You sometimes find different shapes to distinguish different fillings: for example cone ones with sugo filling and round ones with ham and bechamel filling.
Theresa, thanks for the comments. I never thought of saffron risotto as something precious. Maybe we Italians take too many things for granted.
Donna, you're making me blush :-). Thanks for the compliments
Deb thanks: happy you liked them. Since you like them so much I'm sorry I can't come around and offer you one. I guess fed-exing them would take a bit too long ;-). If you try the recipe out let me know what you think.
Posted by: Alberto | May 24, 2004 at 04:05 PM
Renee thank you. Risotto is not that difficult. What is really important is to have: 1) patience, 2) a good stock to add to the rice, 3) a heavy bottomed pot and most important 4) someone to talk to while you stir the rice :-).
You wouldn't happen to have a recipe for those chicken rice balls? the sound incredibly appetising.
Posted by: Alberto | May 24, 2004 at 04:12 PM
Alberto, I am mighty impressed by your skills, your arancine look so wonderful and picture-perfect! I've only had arancine once, in a small deli close to our house where they make all sorts of dishes from all over the world. They were delicious, but the guy couldn't explain to me why they were called "arancine" and I was pretty puzzled. Now I know!
Posted by: clotilde | May 24, 2004 at 05:47 PM
Wow, this is so adorable. I've never seen it before. I just have to give it a try soon.
cheers,
Pim
Posted by: pim | May 24, 2004 at 10:41 PM
clotilde, thanks! happy to clear the "arancine" name mystery for you
Pim thank you and let me know if you try them.
Posted by: Alberto | May 25, 2004 at 01:19 PM
i have wanted to make these for ages, but didn't really know how. next time i make a saffron risotto i shall be sure to make extra just so i can make arancini!
Posted by: kitschenette | May 25, 2004 at 09:00 PM
Kitschenette, you can use a simple white (parmesan) risotto too. Some Sicilians would not use saffron in their arancine ever.
Posted by: Alberto | May 27, 2004 at 03:13 PM
hi Alberto,
so sorry for the late reply : )
I've never made the chicken rice balls myself, but would think that it is standard chicken rice shaped and compacted into ball-shapes.
for a simple, basic chicken rice, saute a little minced garlic and ginger (can be minced or if don't really like garlic, have them in slices, and remove the slices after the rice has been cooked) in tiny bit of hot oil. add Thai jasmine rice and saute until rice well coated.
add good simple chicken stock (i.e. just made from chicken meat/bones and water) and cook the rice.
the traditional (& authentic?) way would be to also add chunks of chicken fat together with the stock for added fragrance.
then I would guess... just let cool a little and shape into balls, and serve with thick dark soy sauce, or chicken gravy.
probably the rice can't be too dry (or too mushy for that matter) for the balls to hold together.
hope that made sense
: )
oh btw, was meaning to mention this previously... are those hands in the pictures yours?
nice long tapered fingers... the fingers (and hands) of a chef ; )
Posted by: Renee | May 31, 2004 at 07:57 AM
Renee thanks both for the recipe and the comment about the hands (that really got me blushing ;-)). I might try the recipe soon: Saami tried some basic chicken rice tonight and loved it, but eating was quite messy :-). I guess he'd locve the chicken rice balls too, and maybe they'd be easier for him to eat, especially without the sauce.
Posted by: Alberto | May 31, 2004 at 11:32 PM
As a real Sicilian and a chef I have never seen the sauce added in with the peas and meat. We mix a little sauce into the rice before it cools off and use plain ol' long grain rice so it get gummy and sticky and helps the ball stay together as it is frying. There is an alternate name for the arincini and it is file di telefono. Which means telephone wires. this is derives fro the way the arincini are eaten. Your take a ball in your hand and break it apart and eat half at a time. When you seperate the halves and pull them apart the mozzarella makes strings and they droop a little as do the wires that stretch from one pole to the next. We also make really small ones (which is more work) and use them as finger food appetizers. Ciao Al
Posted by: al | October 29, 2004 at 09:28 PM
al, which part of Sicily do you come from? I've had arancini both with sauce mixed to the rice and used as I've done in Sicily, so maybe this could be a local difference, one of the great things that makes Italian cuisine so unique.
The fili del telefono thing is interesting: in Rome the local version of arancini is called suppli' al telefono exactly for the same reason. Thanks for the story.
Posted by: Alberto | October 30, 2004 at 01:49 AM