Nonna Nella was born and raised in Siracusa. She made us Arancini Siciliani, where thick, sweet ragu, stretchy provola cheese, peas and parmesan hibernate inside a mini mountain of golden bread-crumbed rice.
She appeared in a grey two-piece skirt suit to go to the butchers. Back in her yellow kitchen we prepared the rice and ragu for the following day, when she would speedily carve three immaculate arancini to every slightly contorted one of ours.
Traditional sicilian arancini is cone shaped, which signifies that it has meat inside. A round one is more likely to be simple tomato and cheese. Often you’ll find swordfish arancini (spada) around Siracusa.
Ingredients
(12 arancini)
400g cups risotto rice
2 eggs
Provola cheese (stringy cows cheese)
Parmesan cheese
200g minced beef
Passata - about 10 tablespoons
Peas (frozen)
Breadcrumbs
Flour
One white onion (half finely chopped for ragu and for risotto, the other to throw into the stock)
1 garlic clove
One peeled carrot, cut into three
One celery stalk, cut into three
Method
You need to start this recipe the day before or at least 4 hours before as the rice and ragu need to be fully cooled before arancini formation begins.
Bring about 800ml water on to boil with the carrot, celery stick and half a white onion. This will be your stock to add to the rice. To save yourself a pan, add the two eggs to the water and remove after 10 minutes. These hard boiled eggs will go inside the arancini when you make them.
In another pan, sweat the quarter chopped onion a little and then add the rice. Stir the rice so it’s coated in oil then slowly start adding the stock. After about 20 minutes of stirring and adding stock, test the rice - should be soft with a tiny crunch at the centre. Stir in 2 tablespoons of passata for colour and add salt to taste.
Pour the rice out onto a baking tray and spread out so it can cool quicker. Making holes in the rice helps with cooling speed.
Now make the ragu. Fry the other quarter diced onion with garlic. When it’s soft and starting to brown, add the meat. Then add about 8 tablespoons of tomato passata, a generous sprinkle of sugar and salt and leave to cook with a lid on for about an hour, stirring occasionally and adding more passata if it’s a little dry. When it’s reduced and the meat is soft and seasoning good - leave to cool.
The next day or when the rice and ragu have cooled, cook two handfuls of peas by dropping into boiling salted water. Peel and cut the hardboiled into little 1 cm cubes. Cut the provola into little half cm cubes.
Prepare a small plate with olive oil - you’ll keep dipping your hands in here before picking up more rice.
Then you should have in front of you: peas, rice, olive oil, eggs, grated parmesan, provola cubes and the ragu.
First take a generous grab of rice and flatten it out in the palm of your other hand so it comes up and around the edges a bit and covers the whole palm. This is the bottom cup of the arancini.
Add a heaped teaspoon of ragu, a piece of egg, two or three pieces of prevola, a teaspoon of peas and a sprinkle of parmesan. Add a blob of rice on top and shape it around the filling. If you see holes appear or filling exploding out, patch with a little more rice. As is traditional, keep turning and squeezing at the top to ensure the arancini is cone shaped. Every time you start a new one, dip your hands in the olive oil so they don’t pick up too much rice! Nella’s arancini were about 12cm tall.
When your arancini are shaped, get two low sided bowls - one for breadcrumbs and one for ‘glue’. Fill one bowl with water, a pinch of salt and about two teaspoons of flour. Mix with a fork to form a creamy thick paste. Pass each arancini through this ‘glue’, roll in breadcrumbs until coated and set aside to be fried.
When you are ready, heat a mix of olive oil and sunflower oil in a pan. When you drop a breadcrumb in and it sizzles, the oil is hot enough. Start the arancini on their bottoms, then slowly rotate in the oil until nicely browned all over. You can use a deep fat fryer if you have it.
Eat while hot with a cold beer for maximum pleasure.