Arincine – little oranges
Arancini have been made in Sicily for 1,000 years and it’s easy to see why these fried rice croquettes are so popular. They’re a fine example of the culinary genre known as Cucina Povera, usually roughly translated as Peasant Cooking, or the Poor Man’s Kitchen. In my case, the poor woman.
The spirit of Cucina Povera is an approach that goes against the cultural norm in Australia although this mode of Italian cooking is becoming ‘fashionable’. It’s about making do with what you’ve got and transforming humble ingredients into dishes that are more than the sum of their parts
Wondering what rice was doing in Sicily a thousand years ago? It’s certainly not grown there today. Rice was introduced during the Kalbid rule, the Arab period. Its cultivation, of course, requires plenty of water and the Arabs built innovative and highly efficient irrigation systems in Sicily. During their 220 year rule, they brought a sophistication and refinement unknown to other parts of Europe, extending the ancient Roman irrigation works and building a vast number of reservoirs and water towers.
You can still see the Arabic influence in this cloister
and the cathedral floor in Monreale
Then there’s Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremeti, Church of St John of the Hermits
In Palermo where I bought these little munchies from various street stalls, the balls were round, while in Catania they were cone-shaped.
My Italian was corrected more than once when I asked for arancini, they’re called arancine, in the feminine, in Sicily. I also came across another variant, arancinu, which I understood as the Sicilian way of naming things. But no matter what you call them, they’re delicious, crisp and crunchy with a melt in your mouth filling, and very, very filling.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of Arborio rice
- 1 sachet of saffron
- I cup of thick Italian tomato sauce with peas. I used 1/2 cup of frozen green peas
- 1 cup of cheese. I was recommended to use canestrato fresco, but any Italian cheese you have on hand will do
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups of breadcrumbs
- A little olive oil
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Cook the rice and saffron in lightly-salted water until soft and yellow. Drain
- Add a blob of olive oil to stop the rice sticking
- Add the cheese and season with freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. Cool.
- Beat the eggs with a little salt and pepper
- Now to roll the balls. Wet your hand and spread some rice mixture, about one inch in thickness, on your palm.
- Add a dollop of the sauce into the middle of the mixture and close the rice into a little ball about the size of a small orange
- Close your hand to make a ball, ensuring the filling is completely enclosed by the rice. Squeeze it a little so that the contents are securely enclosed
- When you've rolled up all the mixture into little balls, roll them one at a time in the beaten egg
- Then drop them into a bowl of breadcrumbs. You can use a plastic bag for the breadcrumbs, drop in a ball at a time and shake the bag
- Heat the oil and deep fry the balls until golden brown. Remove the balls and put them on a paper towel to get rid of any excess oil
- Place in a hot oven for 5 minutes to brown them further and to make sure the filling is melted
- Serve while hot and crunchy!
