Arancini
Balls or cones of cooked rice around a filling of ragù or ham and cheese, breadcrumbed and fried until crisp.
What makes it arancini
- Rice cooked first, cooled, then shaped.
- A filling — ragù and peas, or ham and cheese.
- Breadcrumbed and deep-fried.
Where it comes from
The name means little oranges, for their shape and colour. Rice and saffron are often traced to the centuries of Arab rule in Sicily, though the fried rice ball as it's known today is much younger.
Sicily argues over the name as much as the recipe: in Palermo they're arancine, round, while around Catania they're arancini, shaped to a point like Etna. Either way they're street food, eaten hot from a bar counter.
How it varies
- Al ragù
- Meat sauce, peas and often a cube of cheese.
- Al burro
- Ham, mozzarella and béchamel.
- Supplì
- Rome's cousin, oval, with a string of mozzarella inside.
Be the first here
Start your own aranciniNo one here has made arancini yet. Start it as v1, and every version after is an experiment the next cook can learn from.
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