Arancini di Riso: Sicilian Rice Balls
Arancini are delicious, crispy, deep fried Sicilian balls of rice. They have a meat sauce and mozzarella cheese filling and crunchy breadcrumb coating. Similar Italian rice balls are called supplì in Rome and the nearby region.
Arancini di riso, or Sicilian rice balls (or Italian rice balls) are one the most delicious dishes that I have ever discovered while traveling.
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My First Time in Sicily
When I was 19 years old, I spent 9 weeks traveling in Europe. I actually make myself jealous when I think about this now.
However, even though I was young, I really did appreciate everything I did and was able to see at the time. This is because I had worked very hard to pay for the trip myself. I bought my airline ticket and paid my transportation costs within Europe. However, I was lucky that I was able to stay with family everywhere I travelled.
I was in Southern Italy visiting my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins for the longest part of my trip (5 weeks). While there, my Uncle Nino, Aunt Rita and cousin Marco stopped by our village to visit the family. They were driving from Scotland to their other home in Sicily. When Uncle Nino heard how long I planned to be there, he asked me if I wanted to go with them (!)
Let’s just say I didn’t have to think about my answer: I packed a small bag and was on my way to Sicily that afternoon. Never having been there before, I was absolutely elated at the thought of traveling somewhere new in Italy, especially since it was completely unplanned.
Crossing the Strait of Messina on a ferry from Reggio Calabria at dusk was magical to me: the far-off twinkling lights on the island where my grandparents had once lived, beckoned us to the shore. “La Bella Sicilia” looked so enticing in the evening, and the Mediterranean breeze made the atmosphere even more wondrous that night. I couldn’t wait to experience all that Sicily had to offer.
Taormina, Sicily
My aunt and uncle were the most gracious and generous hosts while I was there, and took me to several towns and interesting places. However, I did have a favorite:Taormina. To this day, it is most definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
The views were breathtaking; from the beautiful town of Taormina, to Etna off in the distance, I was in awe.
My aunt and uncle not only introduced me to their family, friends and favorite local places, but also to Sicilian food and drink. Some of which I had never tasted or heard of before (and yes, I was already a “foodie” back then). Uncle Nino knew of restaurants which were in remote homes on desolate mountainsides. I sometimes wondered how he actually found them!
I was introduced to granita with Sicilian brioche for breakfast. There were restaurants by the sea.
Seafood is one of the highlights of Sicilian cuisine, and I tasted swordfish and prawns (like large shrimp) which were simply prepared, yet incredibly flavorful due to every town’s proximity to the sea on such a relatively small island.
My standards for swordfish were raised to such a high level, that it’s difficult for any swordfish I have elsewhere to live up to the flavor which spoiled me all those years ago. This is definitely one of the downfalls of tasting truly outstanding food.
What are Arancini?
One of the Sicilian delights my relatives introduced me to were called “arancini,” which means “little oranges”. Similar creations (but different in many ways) are called “supplì”* in Rome and Lazio).
Arancini are crunchy, deep fried balls, or cones of rice, which traditionally hide a center containing a tomato meat sauce, and peas.
I often see arancini on menus in Italian restaurants here in Los Angeles, but I don’t ever remember seeing them back then (not that I was frequenting a lot of restaurants at that age). Although they are called arancini, the ones I ate in Sicily were cone-shaped, like these in this photo, and they resembled pears more than oranges.
*Suppli are very similar to arancini, except for the center filling is usually only cheese and they aren’t always round in shape.
How do you make Italian rice balls? (Arancini and Supplì)
Arancini are made by forming plain risotto into either conical, or round shapes, with mozzarella in the center. To add even more confusion, these supplì are often called “arancini di riso al telefono” because when you break and pull them apart, the mozzarella forms a long string, like a telephone line.
Alternatively, peas and the tomato meat sauce are hidden in the middle of other types of arancini. However, all of them are dipped in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and deep fried–can you just picture that? Here, I’ll help you.
These are sold as snack foods at pizza shops, bars and similar places in Sicily, and in Southern Italy and they may have “travelled” throughout Italy now. However, I never saw them anywhere in the northern part of the country when I was there last few times.
Never made risotto? Learn how easy it is with my step by step risotto recipe.
Don’t be intimidated by these delectable treats as they are quite easy to make, as long as the rice is cooked properly. I’ve seen lots of other recipes giving horrible directions that will doom the user to failure. It really saddens me, because sometimes they even use MY PHOTO with their recipe!
Here’s an arancini mould you can buy to make perfectly formed pear shaped arancini but it’s the 80g size, so these are appetizer sized. NOTE: this is the original arancini maker mould MADE IN SICILY by Arancinotto. All the others on Amazon are Chinese knock-offs which are selling for much less, and when they break you’ll know why. Buy the original!
Tip~
Don’t try to use regular rice, or boiled or steamed rice as it will not stay together when you try to form a ball or cone. You will be rewarded for your efforts, believe me.
*NOTE: if you are able to make the risotto a few hours ahead of time, or even the day before, this will work in your favor as it can be refrigerated so that it sticks together more easily.
Arancini di Riso: Sicilian Rice Balls
recipe adapted by Christina Conte makes about 12 to 16, depending on size
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Make the risotto by adding the rice to the heated oil in a large sauté pan, and stirring quickly for one or two minutes. Quickly add the white wine while stirring. With the heat on medium high, begin adding the chicken stock a little at a time, and continuously stirring, until all the stock has been used and the rice is cooked, yet still al dente.
Taste, adding salt if necessary. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Add an egg to the risotto and mix well, then refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight.
To make the arancini~
- Place some rice in your hand and flatten it into your cupped hand, but don’t make it too thin, or the filling will ooze out.
- Place a piece of (mozzarella if you like), and/or a little tomato sauce (and peas, if using) in the center of the cupped rice.
- Next, close the rice around the filling and shape into a ball.
- If you’d like to make conical shapes, flatten the bottom of the ball, and make the top more pointed.
Now, roll the shaped arancini in flour.
Then, roll them in the beaten egg.
Finally, roll in the breadcrumbs; I like using this set of trays.
Set aside until all of the rice has been used.
Fry the Arancini
Heat some oil in a deep fryer, pot, or wok until it is very hot.
Add the arancini, and cook quickly, turning often so they don’t brown too much on one side. If serving immediately, fry for a few minutes, so the cheese will melt in the center.
(If you’d like to serve them at a later time, remove them quickly after just browning; then, just before serving, place them on a baking sheet and re-heat in the oven at 400ºF for 5 to 10 minutes.)
Remove from oil and place on paper towel lined plate or tray.
Serve plain, or place on tray with a little tomato sauce and garnish with basil for a nice presentation, but this is not a typical Sicilian way to serve them. (If you’d like to serve them at a later time, remove them quickly after just browning; then, just before serving, place them on a baking sheet and re-heat in the oven at 400ºF for 5 to 10 minutes).
THE WORLD IS A BOOK, AND THOSE WHO DO NOT TRAVEL READ ONLY ONE PAGE.
-St. Augustine
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Arancini di Riso: Sicilian Rice Balls
Ingredients
FILLING:
- 1 cup meat sauce as in spaghetti sauce, not raw tomato sauce for vegetarian
- 3 oz cooked peas optional
RISOTTO:
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 oz white wine
- 30 oz vegetable stock
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 2 cups Arborio rice or Carnaroli
BREADING:
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 24 oz oil for frying
Instructions
Make the risotto
- Make the risotto by adding the rice to the heated oil in a large saute pan, and stirring quickly for one or two minutes. Quickly add the white wine while stirring.
- With the heat on medium high, begin adding the chicken stock a little at a time, and continuously stirring, until all the stock has been used and the rice is cooked, yet still al dente (I have a risotto recipe here on my blog). Taste; adding salt if necessary. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Add an egg to the risotto and mix well, then refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight.
To make the arancini:
- Place some rice in your hand and flatten it into your cupped hand, but don’t make it too thin, or the filling will ooze out. Place a piece of mozzarella, and/or a little tomato sauce (and peas, if using) in the center of the cupped rice. Next, close the rice around the filling and shape into a ball.
- If you’d like to make conical shapes, flatten the bottom of the ball, and make the top more pointed.
- Now, roll the shaped arancini in flour, then roll them in the beaten egg, and finally the breadcrumbs. Set aside until all of the rice has been used.
Fry the arancini
- Heat some oil in a deep fryer, pot or wok until it is very hot. Add the arancini, and cook quickly, turning often so they don’t brown too much on one side. If serving immediately, fry for a few minutes, so the cheese will melt in the center.
- Remove from oil and place on paper towel lined plate or tray. (If you’d like to serve them at a later time, remove them quickly after just browning; then, just before serving, place them on a baking sheet and re-heat in the oven at 400ºF for 5 to 10 minutes.)
- Serve plain, or place on tray with a little tomato sauce and garnish with basil. You can also serve them with a little extra sauce on the side, although this isn't done in Italy.
Notes
Nutrition
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Arancini and supplì are totally different rice recipes! There is a war raging between Sicilians and Romans to decide which ones taste better. Arancini are large balls of saffron-tinted rice with a ragout, aubergine, peas, etc. filling according to taste. Their breadcrumbs are made with the white “inside” of bread so they look deep yellow like oranges. They are now VERY popular all over Italy. Supplì – a symbol of Rome – are very poor people’s food, risotto leftovers with a bit of mozzarella, are shaped like eggs or sausages and the breadcrumbs are made of grated crusts, that is why they look golden BROWN.
A Roman reader
You are correct, Regina and remind me that I need to update this post! When I wrote this, 8 years ago, I didn’t realize how different they are, but have learned since then. However, there are so many types all over Italy that I think it’s hard to distinguish which are made in what manner now. I saw more “arancini” in Florence last year than I’d ever seen in Sicily! Ugh. Thank you for your note. CC
Hi Christina! I love these rice ball a lot. it so easy steps to cook. I will definitely be trying this soon.
Awesome! Let me know how you like them.
Ciao Christina, just put the risotto in the fridge..I did my best to follow your instructions apart from once cooled added grated Parmesan and pepper…it’s the first time I’ve cooked risotto ( I did click on your risotto link only to find I was back to where I started)anyway, whenever I’ve had risotto it’s been how can I say, gloopy where as what I ended up with I’d call stodgy to the point I wasn’t sure it’d need an egg (white I’m guessing by your picture) to bind it, although I decided to too follow your guidance and and add one. I’m going down the route of adding my homemade Italian sausage pasta sauce, peas and mozzarella.
I hope my message finds you well and will update my final outcome.
Paul Farinella
Oh please do let me know the arancini turn out, Paul! They really are lovely! Grazie for the note! CC
Greetings Christina, from another Christina. This recipe looks amazing! I’m planning on using it to make some mini-arancinis to serve as appetizers. I have some homemade turkey stock that I froze after Thanksgiving. Do you think this will work in place of chicken stock? My only concern is that the stock completely jelled when I cooled it, so I know the gelatin content is pretty high. It does turn back to liquid when heated, but I’m just not sure if the high gelatin content will be a problem for this recipe. What do you think?
Hi Christina! :) I don’t think the gelatin is an issue as it’s getting cooked into the rice. I think they’re going to be a hit! Enjoy! CC
Hi Christina… I made the mini arancini appetizers, and they were indeed a hit! I did run into a few confusing points though. For one, my risotto absorbed the liquid much more quickly than I anticipated. I used medium heat, and I was adding a 1/4 cup ladle of stock every 30-45 seconds before it would get too dry and I would need to add more. I ended up adding an extra 2 cups (16oz) of liquid in order to be able to cook the risotto for 16-17 minutes. I stirred in a handful of finely crumbled Italian sausage and cooked minced mushrooms at the end, about 4oz each. The risotto was nicely cooked and al dente at that point, but still really tight and dry for risotto. I had to add an extra egg to moisten the mixture enough for rolling into balls.
The recipe made 30 arancinis just slightly smaller than golf balls. I don’t think they were much smaller than the ones in your pictures. The recipe says it makes 8 arancini. I was expecting to get 20ish, maybe 24 smaller arancini – but was not expecting 30. If I would have made 8 arancini, they would have been as big as bocci balls, haha!
I weighed out the mixture at 40g for each arancini (just the risotto mixture, before adding filling and breading). Is 2 cups of uncooked/dry arborio rice the correct amount? It seems that one cup of uncooked rice may have made more sense given the liquid ratios and total volume/yield. Or was the yield of 8 supposed to mean 8 servings consisting of 2 arancinis each, rather than 8 total arancinis?
In the end, they turned out great. I brought a small 1qt crockpot full of homemade marinara to my friend’s holiday party to serve alongside these, and served them on a platter with a decorative little toothpick placed in each one. Everyone loved them. I will definitely make them again (hopefully with some tips from you lol)!
Hi Christina, wow, that’s a lot more liquid! If you click on my link (within the recipe) it will show you how to make risotto. You were definitely adding the liquid much too quickly, but I can’t imagine that it would make that much of a difference, but maybe it did. Adding the liquid in about 4 measures is a better method.
Regarding the size: if they were smaller than a golf ball, they were much, much smaller than mine. Sorry if that’s not clear in the recipe. They are a handheld snack and are more of a baseball size. Yes, the serving size is 8 and I’m figuring each person eats two. It was listed on the recipe card, but I changed the yield to 16 instead of 8. Sorry again not to be clear.
Hope this information helps for your next time, but I would suggest making them larger as the ratio of rice to filling will make a difference in the size. You do want to try these as I tried them in Sicily! Enjoy, Christina. Hope you let me know how it goes next time. :)
I lived in Sicily for four years and am culturally Italian. I cannot wait to try this recipe! I sincerely doubt arancini have traveled outside of Sicily, maybe very, very southern Italy (as in, immediately next door to the ferry in Reggio Calabria and no further). The Italians and the Sicilians don’t particularly like each other, and Italians, especially northern Italians, are very racist against Sicilians and southern Italians.
Hopefully those feelings are turning out to be a thing of the past. I hope you like the recipe, Mary Grace! :)
I love to cook, but my Italian repertoire is somewhat limited. I have also never tried arancini in a restaurant, but I made a really tasty bolognese and was looking for ways to use it other than serving with spaghetti. I found your recipe and tried it. I started yesterday but decided to refrigerate the risotto overnight, so only served it tonight. It was absolutely delicious, thank you, I got great compliments! Just extremely messy in the preparation for my liking, but well worth the effort. I’m particularly glad that I prepared my own breadcrumbs, the crust was perfect. If anything, I should probably have had more filling in proportion to the rice, but I’m very happy with my first attempt!
Good for you, Linda! This is one of, if not the most labor intensive of my recipes! Very happy that you tried them and loved them! Thank you for taking the time to come back to leave this lovely review, too! Hope you look at some of my other Italian recipes (I promise they won’t be as messy (except maybe the roasted peppers!) or labor intensive)! Grazie!
Love these rice balls a lot! I still remember the first time I made it without breadcrumbs and it turned out disaster when the arancini weren’t crunchy at all. It becomes my cooking lesson that is don’t try to make a speciality if you don’t have enough primary ingredients.
You did have a great trip, btw :)
– Natalie Ellis