Italian Rice Balls Recipe (Arancini Recipe)

A pile of arancini rice balls, and one is bit into showing the ragu filling.

4.75 from 4 votes

Arancini is the ultimate Sicilian and Italian food, its a delicious meat sauce stuffed inside a rice ball, dipped in bread crumbs and fried a ragu stuffed rice ball dipped in bread crumbs and deep fried.

Prep Time1

Cook Time30

Total Time1 30

Cuisine: Sicilian Cusine

Servings: rice balls

Calories: 223kcal

Author: Ellen

Equipment

Hand Whisk

Ingredients

For the Rice:

6 cups water
2 ½ cups short white grain rice (Italian rice or arancini rice if you can find it)
1 TBS salt

For the Ragu Meat Sauce:

2 TBS olive oil
½ cup diced yellow onion
½ cup diced carrot
½ lb ground beef
3 cups tomato sauce
1 TBS white sugar
1/2 TBS salt (to taste)
1 tsp pepper (to taste)
1 cup frozen green peas

For the Arancini Balls:

2 eggs
1 to 2 cups fine breadcrumbs
3 to 4 cups vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

For the Rice:

Bring 6 cups of water to boil in a large pot.
Stir in rice and salt, lower the temperature slightly, cook until rice is tender and soaks up all or most of the water; about 20 minutes
Drain the rice if needed, then spread it out on a cooking sheet to cool the rice quicker.

For the Ragu Meat Sauce:

In a large sauce pan add the olive oil, saute the diced onions and carrots until golden and tender over medium high heat.
Add in the ground beef, and cook it until browned.
Add the tomato sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper.
Simmer until thicken, about 20 to 30 minutes – the sauce needs to be thick enough to hold it's shape so you can form the rice around it.
Add the green peas and let them simmer an additional 5 minutes until hot.
Remove the sauce from the heat and let it cool.

For the Arancini Balls:

In a small bowl, whisk together the 2 eggs until completely combined
In another small bowl, add the fine breadcrumbs
Wet your hands in some water to prevent rice from sticking
Take about ¼ cup of rice and spread it into a flat patty on your hands.
Scoop about 2 TBS of ragu – tomato sauce and ground beef – into the middle of the rice.
Move the rice around the sauce, then form it into a ball, making sure the sauce isn't coming through. – they should be about 2 inches in diameter. Place them on a cookie sheet until you're ready for the next step.
Dip a rice ball in the egg, swirling around to cover completely.
Dip the rice ball in the breadcrumbs and cover completely with breadcrumbs, place on another cooking sheet.
Repeat until all the stuffed rice balls are covered with breadcrumbs
In a wide pot, add the vegetable oil – you want to be able to fry 3 to 4 rice balls at a time.
Once the oil is 350 degrees Fahrehneit, place 3 to 4 rice balls into the oil
Let them fry for a minute or two, rotating as they cook, to cook all sides, until they are golden brown.
Remove the balls using a slotted spoon or spatula and lay on paper towel to soak the excess grease.
Continue until all arancini are fried, and enjoy warm!

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