Arancini (Sicilian Stuffed rice balls) "Little Oranges"
Why I Love This Recipe
This is one of the very few recipes my mother-in-law taught me to make. She was without a doubt one of the best Italian cooks I ever met; and that includes my own Nonna who was a whiz in the kitchen.
Ingredients You'll Need
1 cup Arborio/short-grain rice
2 cups water
scant 1 cup tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. frozen peas
pork (already cooked in sauce)You can use a piece of Boston Butt or even a pork chop or a country style pork rib. Make sure you cook it in your tomato sauce before you start this recipe.
2 cups grated romano cheese
enough plain bread crumbs to coat balls.
enough veg. oil to deep fry balls
Directions
Cook rice in water until soft about 20 min. or so.
Check to make sure it is soft.
Immediately add grated cheese and fresh ground pepper and stir until cheese melts.
Allow rice mixture to cool sightly then scoop up around 4 Tbsp and form into a ball around the size of a sm. baseball. (you can make them any size really)
Poke a hole in the middle and add a spoonful of sauce and a few peas and a few pieces of pork. Form ball again and roll in breadcrumbs.
Heat oil hot enough to brown balls all over.
I usually place the oil in a narrow pot and make sure it is hot enough by dropping a few grains of bread crumbs.
When they sizzle and turn brown add one or two rice balls at a time.
Depending on how big you make them you should get 6 or 8 rice balls per recipe.
I usually serve them as an appetizer with a little bit of tomato sauce for dipping.
This is my mother-in-law's family recipe,
