The Recipe for Sicilian Rice Balls Arancini

Everybody who has been to Sicilia is sure to have eaten arancini, the pride of the Sicilian cuisine – they are rice balls with different fillings – meat, cheese, ham, sausage, mushrooms or spinach with ricotta. Arancini means “little oranges.” This dish is named so because bright yellow rice balls look like oranges. They get the color from saffron, yolks, a little tomato and being fried in oil.

Ingredients for Rice Balls Arancini

• 0.9 lb Arborio rice
• 2 yolks
• 0.2 grated parmesan
• saffron on the tip of a knife

Ingredients for filling

• 0.2 Prosciutto ham
• 3 tablespoons green peas
• 1 onion
• 3 tablespoons tomato sauce
• 0.2 lb mozzarella

Recipe for Rice Balls Arancini

1. Boil rice until ready in salted water. The rice should come out starchy and sticky, not falling apart.


Boiled rice

2. Add saffron dissolved in a spoon of water, yolks and grated cheese to the warm rice.


Add saffron



Add yolks



Add grated cheese

3. Mix it all carefully and leave to cool down.


Mix it all carefully

4. For filling fry finely chopped onion.
5. Add minced ham and tomato sauce. Simmer everything for about 5 minutes.


chopped onion.and minced ham



Add and tomato sauce

6. When the mixture has cooled down, add peas and minced mozzarella.


Ready filling

7. Take with a wet hand some of the rice, make small flat cakes, put on the filling and roll up into a ball so that the filling gets closed up inside.


Rice and filling

8. Roll the balls around in baking bread.


ball in baking bread

9. Fry in a large amount of oil until they acquire a nice golden crust.


Fry in a large amount of oil

10. Take the balls out with a slotted spoon and place on a plate covered by a paper napkin.


Take the balls out with a slotted spoon



Sicilian Rice Balls Arancini