These deep-fried rice balls are Sicily’s most beloved street food, “arancini”, or “arancine”, depending on which side of the island you go. Let’s try 3 different fillings: classic with ragout, “norma” with aubergines, and then pistachio + mortadella. Which one wins the taste test?
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00:00 Intro
00:36 Rice
02:01 Ragout filling
03:20 Assembling and frying
05:41 “Norma” filling
06:57 Pistachio filling
09:37 Tasting
10:04 Outro
Ingredients for 6 arancini:
Rice (for 6 arancini):
– 250 g risotto rice
– 15 saffron strands
– 30 g parmesan
– 20 g butter
– 750 L vegetable (or chicken) stock
Ragout filling (6 arancini):
– 150 g minced pork (or beef)
– 1/4 onion
– 1/4 carrot
– 1/4 celery stick
– 1/4 glass of wine
– 200 ml passata
– Olive oil
– 1/3 tsp salt
– 1 pinch black pepper
– 20 g peas
– 50 g caciocavallo (or kashkaval, or mozzarella)
Norma filling (3 arancini):
– 1/2 aubergine
– Vegetable oil
– 100 ml passata
– 1 garlic clove
– Olive oil
– Pinch of salt
– 10 g parmesan
– 25 g caciocavallo (or kashkaval, or mozzarella)
Pistachio filling (3 arancini):
– 50 g pistachio
– 50 g mortadella
– 80 ml milk
– 6 g corn flour (corn starch)
– 25 g caciocavallo (or kashkaval, or mozzarella)
Coating (6 arancini):
– 100 g all-purpose flour (I used gluten-free flour)
– 120 ml water
– 1 egg (or 60 ml water)
– A pinch of salt
– 100 g breadcrumbs
– 1-1.5 L vegetable oil
Procedure:
Rice:
1. Prepare 750 ml vegetable stock with 1 carrot, 1 tomato, 1 onion, 1 celery stick, 1.25 L water, 1/2 tsp salt for 1 hour
2. Strain the stock (it should have reduced to 750 ml), and bring it back to a boil
3. Add in approx. 15 crushed saffron strands infused in 1/4 glass water, and 250 g risotto rice; cook it al dente, i.e. 15 minutes
4. Turn off the heat, and add in 30 g parmesan and 20 g butter
5. Spread it over an oven tray to let it cool down (at least half an hour)
Ragout filling:
1. Finely chop a bit of celery, carrot and onion, then briefly sauté them in olive oil
2. Add 150 g minced pork, brown it, then add 1/4 glass white wine and let it evaporate
3. Add 200 ml passata, ½ glass water, 1/3 tsp salt, and simmer for 20 minutes (add more water if necessary)
4. Add 20 g blanched peas to the ragout, and cook for 5 more minutes on low heat
Pistachio filling:
1. Blanch 50 g pistachio in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, then let them cool down and peel them off with a cloth
2. Roast them for 5 minutes in the air fryer at 160 C (10 mins in the oven), let them cool down and dry out for 15-20 mins, then grind them – set aside 1 tsp with medium grind, grind the rest to a very fine powder, set aside 1 tsp of this powder to dust the arancini when read, then add 1 tsp vegetable oil and blend until you obtain a paste
3. Prepare a bechamel sauce with 80 ml milk, 6 g corn flour, a pinch of salt
4. Combine bechamel sauce and pistachio paste
Norma filling:
1. Dice an aubergine (small pieces), then shallow-fry it in vegetable oil
2. In a saucepan, simmer 200 g passata with a pinch of salt, 1 clove of garlic and 1 tbsp olive oil until reduced and thick
3. Grate 10 g parmesan cheese and add it in, along with the fried aubergines
Procedure:
Assembling and frying:
1. Wet your hands and take some rice in one hand, add the filling of choice, cheese, and a bit more rice; wrap the rice around the filling into a ball or cone/tear drop shape
7. Prepare a batter with 100 g all-purpose flour, 120 ml water and 1 egg (or extra 60 ml water)
8. Dip each arancino in the batter, then roll it in a tray filled with 100 g breadcrumbs
9. Fry in hot vegetable oil, 2-3 at a time, for 4 minutes or until golden; enjoy!
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Hi everyone, and welcome to my channel!
Sicily has a lot of great food – everybody knows cannoli, and some say
even gelato was invented here. These ones are surely among the most famous
and beloved – arancini! Or, arancine, if you’re in the western part of the island.
This allegedly one-thousand-year-old snack takes its name from its resemblance to oranges,
but why aren’t these ones round, you might ask? Well, at some point this shape became more
popular in the eastern part of Sicily; some say to make them look like Mount
Etna, a volcano which is indeed on that side of the island.
Whether that’s true or not, I will be making arancini with 3 different
fillings today, so we better get going! First, let’s have a look at the part
of the preparation that doesn’t change regardless of the filling: the rice.
I’m going to prepare some vegetable stock with onion, tomato, carrot and celery,
in 1.25 L of water, and ½ tsp of salt. I’ll let it simmer for an
hour, then I’ll strain it. The stock should have now reduced to 750 ml.
At this point, I’m going to crush about 15 strands of saffron in a mortar – this is the best way to
make sure they release all their aroma and colour. Then I’m going to infuse it in 1/4 of a glass of
hot water, and I’m going to add it to the stock. And now, the rice: this is 250 g of carnaroli, but
any other rice labelled as “risotto” rice will do. As the stock is boiling, I’m
going to go ahead and throw it in. I’ll cook it for 15 minutes,
to leave it a bit “al dente”. You don’t wash this type of rice, because you
want to retain all the starch to either obtain a creamy risotto or – like in this case – to
make the grains stick to each other and well, prevent arancini from falling apart.
After 15 minutes, I’m going to turn off the heat and throw in 20 g butter
and 30 g of grated parmesan cheese. Now, I’m going to spread it over an oven tray to
allow it to cool down, so that it’s ready once I have prepared the filling.
Let’s talk about that. I’m going to show you the most common one first,
“cu sucu” which is Sycilian for “with ragout”. And indeed, I’m preparing a meat ragout.
I’ve finely chopped a bit of celery, carrot and onion, and I am going to sauté them
in olive oil until the onion is translucent. Then I’m going to add 150 g minced pork – but
you can also use beef or a mixture of both. The meat has browned, so I add 1/4 of a
glass of white wine and I let it evaporate. Now I can add 200 ml of passata, ½ a
glass of water and 1/3 tsp of salt. These ingredient amounts, including
the rice, are for 6 arancini. I’m going to let this simmer for about 20 minutes,
adding more water, if necessary, then I’m going to add 20 g of peas that I have previously blanched.
5 more minutes on low heat, and it will be ready. In the meantime, I’m going to
dice 50 g of kashkaval cheese. It’s a type of cheese used in Eastern
Europe and Turkey, and it’s the closest thing I’ve found to caciocavallo here in the UK.
Edam is a close match too, though I find it a bit saltier; otherwise, you can also use mozzarella.
And now, let’s get ready to assemble arancini! I’m going to get back to the rice, and I’m going
to use a spatula to divide it into 6 rectangles. Then I’m going to draw another line
to cut out a third of each rectangle. And I’ll show you why I did it.
I’m going to wet my hands with water so the rice doesn’t stick to them, and I’m going
take the larger piece of one of the rectangles. While I hold it in one hand, I use the
other hand to place a tbsp of filling on it, then some cheese, and then the
smaller part of the rectangle on top. I’m going to wrap the rice around the filling
and I’m going to give it the shape I’m looking for – you can make arancini round like in
Palermo, or conical like in Catania and Messina! Done!
And so on with all the other ones. We’re almost there – now I am going
to prepare a batter with 100 g flour, 1 egg, 120 ml water and a pinch of salt.
You can also replace the egg with about 50 or 60 ml of water, like I’m going
to do for the next batch of arancini. Then I’m going to prepare a dish with about 100
g of breadcrumbs – but it would have been better to use something larger, like an oven tray.
I’m going to dip each arancino in the batter, first, drain the excess batter, then
I’m going to coat it in breadcrumbs. And they’re ready to fry!
I’m going to bring 1.5 L of vegetable oil to above 160 C, then I am going to fry the
arancini for about 4 or 5 minutes, until golden. You can reduce the amount of oil, depending on
the size of the saucepan you use – I actually used a bit too much here – but, considering their
shape, I would still recommend to deep-fry them to make sure they’re evenly cooked all around.
Also, you shouldn’t fry more than 2 or 3 at a time, to prevent the temperature
of the oil from dropping too much. Ready, and they’re so mouthwatering!
But, before we give them a try, I want to show you two more fillings I made arancini with.
I’ll start with an aubergine filling, named “alla Norma”, after “pasta alla
norma”, a popular Sicilian pasta dish. For this batch of 6 arancini, I am
making only 3 with this filling. After dicing half an aubergine,
I’m going to shallow-fry it in vegetable oil until golden brown.
Then I’ll prepare a simple tomato sauce: a drizzle of olive oil, 200 ml of passata, a garlic
clove, a pinch of salt and half a glass of water. I’ll let it simmer for about 15
minutes, until it has reduced. I can take it off the heat now.
The last ingredient I need is 10 g of grated parmesan cheese – it should be
ricotta salata, literally “salted ricotta”, but you probably won’t find it outside of Italy.
I’m going to combine everything together, and use it to make 3 arancini,
just like I showed you before. First the rice, then the filling
on top, some cheese, rice again and then I’ll carefully wrap it around.
And now, the third filling – pistachio! A bit more time consuming, but
absolutely worth it in my opinion. I’ll start by blanching 50 g of
pistachios, a couple of minutes, then I’ll rinse them, rub them
with a cloth and peel the skin off. I’m almost regretting being so thorough with this,
and you can skip this step, but I wanted to make sure to have a perfect green result at the end.
Now, I will roast them in the air fryer for 5 minutes at 160 C, then I’ll let
them cool down for 15 minutes. Now that they’re dry again, I
will transfer them to a grinder. I’m going to set aside 1 or 2 tsp when they’re
still coarsely ground; then, another tsp when it looks like a very fine powder, and then
I’m going to add 2 tsp of vegetable oil and I’ll keep blending until I obtain a smooth paste.
I’m also going to need 50 g of mortadella – cubes would be better, but you normally only
find sliced mortadella here in the UK. Now, I’m going to prepare a bechamel
sauce, well, a quicker and lighter version without butter: 80 ml of milk,
6 g of corn flour, and a pinch of salt. When making bechamel sauce this way,
it’s important to stir the mixture before transferring it to the hob – corn flour won’t
dissolve, so I will keep stirring until the sauce reaches temperature and it thickens.
At this point, I’m going to throw in the pistachio paste, blend it all well,
and adjust for salt and thickness. Then, I’m going to add the coarsely ground
pistachios just for a bit of extra crunch, and the mortadella.
And now, everything is ready to assemble these arancini too!
You already know it by now! Rice, filling, cheese, rice again, and then shape it the way you prefer.
Then the batter dip, and the breadcrumb coating. I didn’t use an egg for this batter, and I
made it thinner, but it works just as well. This is a better setup – as you can see, with an
oven tray, I can coat the arancini more easily. Like for the “norma” version, I only
made 3 arancini with pistachios, so you will have to double the ingredient
amounts for the filling if you want to make 6. Time to fry them in hot vegetable oil.
Finishing touch for the pistachio arancini – I’m dusting them with the
pistachio powder I set aside before. And yes, now they’re all
ready, let’s give them a try! These are the ones with
the classic ragout filling. Delicious, you can’t go wrong with this!
The norma filling – I’m not vegetarian, but I love aubergines, and this is fantastic too!
Finally, the pistachio one – well worth the effort!
This might actually be my new favourite arancino! And which one is your favourite?
Let me know in the comments, whether you already tried them or if you’re
going to try them after watching this video. And if you enjoyed it, please consider
giving it a thumbs up and subscribing, it’s free and it truly helps my channel!
So, where are we going next?
Dining and Cooking