Slow Fast Food~ Arancini

Arancini,snack,Italian,rice

No they're not oranges. Just shaped like them. And they're amazing. REALLY amazing.

Italians don't eat much fast food. They eat faster slow food. Their gas stations on the autostradas have delis that sell sandwiches whose ingredients took from 6 months to 20 years to prepare. Quality aged true prosciuttos and parmesans will never be sold in our fast food factories.

Arancini (ah-rahn-chee'-nee) are the traditional portable food of Sicily. It's the land of oranges and they make these delicacies portable the same way oranges are. They normally are balls of saffron rice filled with a bit of stewed meat, a piece of cheese and a sprinkling of peas. Many varieties are available though and I have to say that I prefer those over the traditional. In Catania there are hole-in-the-wall shops that specialize in dozens of kinds of just arancini. Our most recent trip ended there one of the last nights. We had Pistachio arancini and sugo arancini for dinner, and ended with nutella arancini for dessert! Here are a few of my faves...

Mushroom
Pistachio
Smoked salmon and cream
Butter
Tuna
Sugo (meat sauce)
Spaghetti and tomato sauce
Even nutella and hazelnut!

They're not hard to do but they take planning. The easiest way is to have the rice done and the filling done. Maybe through the week save bowls of pasta sauce, meatballs, chopped veggies... Then on arancini day just make rice, assemble and fry. It's a fun dinner party idea as well...DIY appetizers?

Arancini
4 cups cooked sticky rice, any rice that's barely sticky. Maybe cook your normal rice with a tad extra water.
1 cup filling
1/2 cup parmesan
Seasoned bread crumbs (bought or plain, adding parmesan and italian spices)
1-2 Eggs, beaten, adding a little water.
Oil

Filling can be left over roast, chopped and adding some spaghetti sauce and a little chunk of cheese. Can be garlicky chopped spinach, or mushrooms with a squeeze of lemon and some parsley. Make the filling and set aside.

Fill a small 1 1/2qt sauce pan with frying oil to 1 1/2"-2" deep (sunflower or peanut is great. Not olive)

Heat on med-hi to hi. Salt the oil like you'd salt food.

Break up the rice and add a handful of Parmesan. If not sticky enough to squeeze into balls add a little egg or water.

Have a bowl with breadcrumbs, another bowl with beaten egg with a bit of water, and your filling. Make an assembly line.

Put a golf ball size amt of rice in palm. Make a well and add a small spoon of filling. Put another spoon of rice on top and smush well to close. Roll in egg then in breadcrumbs.

Test the oil by dropping a few breadcrumbs in the oil. They should fry immediately. Watch your temperature, lowering if the arancini brown really quickly and raising if it takes too long to cook.
I fry three at a time in my pan, turning once. Don't overcook but be sure to brown. Drain on a rack over paper towels. Experiment with size and shape. They're very filling so don't make them too big.
My favorite is about 2 1/2" inch size.

Make plenty. Pictured are Arancini with funghi trifolati inside. Chopped mushrooms, sauteed in garlic, butter and olive oil, and at the end add salt, squeeze of lemon, and lots of chopped parsley. SQUISITI, fun, and a great base to play with, adding new ingredients, making tiny ones or sweet ones, even cover an olive with rice and breadcrumbs for neat appetizers...sky's the limit!

Risotto ai funghi

"Mom, what's for lunch?"
"Theres bread and cheese that dad made...make a sandwich."
"No, how bout risotto? Mushroom or broccoli!"

I can't resist that kind of request. Well maybe I can sometimes. Not today.

Risotto is like pasta. Truly you don't NEED the right kind of rice. Short. Long. Jasmine. Arborio. You can even use brown rice (although it may take you till 2014 to cook it). Yes I can hear all you northern Italian friends moaning, all the way across the Atlantic, but it's true. You can manipulate things enough to be satisfied and have a wonderful meal.

This is my fairly easy risotto, made withOUT bouillon cubes (which are health NO-NOs for msg content and sodium)!! Here goes.

You need three things for risotto. 
Rice, a condiment, and broth.

For your broth put a largish saucepan of water to boil with an onion cut in four, a celery stalk, a carrot, maybe a tomato, and if you have it a few peppercorns... whatever. Let it boil for at least 30 min.  For risotto keep it warm and pick out the veggies and peppercorns. Dump the vegs in the compost when done.

About 15 min into your broth cooking, chop an onion and a couple garlic cloves, and two portobello mushrooms. That's going to be my condiment.  You can sub broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, just about any old veg or even leftover roast chicken or a bit of smoked salmon. 

Slice mushrooms about 1/4" thick and then cut into bites. Throw all those into a 4qt saucepan or large skillet with "un noce" of butter. A walnut size piece. About 3 tbsp, and add about three turns round the pan drizzling olive oil too. Each turn round is about a tbsp. Sauté all those veggies on med till everything is wilted and golden.

Now dump in your 3 cups of rice. I like jasmine. I can buy it in bulk. And such an aroma!
Mix up with the butter and oil and veggies, and add another "noce" of butter. You want to toast the rice. It makes such a nice flavor. Don't stir too much. Scrape the bottom and stir, then let sit a minute. Then do it again. Give it time to touch the bottom and cook. (Btw y'all aren't using non stick cookware anymore are you??? Well don't. I use stainless. No worries. No icky scary stuff.) Ok toast about 3-4 minutes. It won't get really brown but it'll start to look dry and brown a tad.

Your broth is done now, and you start ladling it onto the rice. It'll steam and all. I like that part. Put only enough broth in so that once stirred in (scrape the bottom) you still see a slight layer of broth on top. Keep adding broth as it disappears and keep stirring in, scraping up the nice bottom bits, cooking until the rice is nice and al dente. Not mushy. There should still be a little wetness to it. Like there was too much broth. It's ok. Salt and black pepper to taste. Or use red pepper. That works too.

Here's the fun part. Put another "noce" of butter on top, stir in and make that rice all shiny, then stir in a handful of chopped fresh parsley and a nice squirt of lemon juice. Lastly a handful of Parmesan. And let sit for at least 10 minutes. Wow. So wonderful.

This works great with broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, radicchio, all so good. Broccoli, cauliflower and radicchio should be added more toward the last 10 minutes. Cooking time with broth is like any rice, about 20-25 minutes. It's such a good dish, good as a side or a main course. We had it alone for lunch, and for dinner had roasted meatballs, collard greens and risotto as a side. Nice. And no complaints about eating it twice in one day!
Oh if you want to get really crazy, toast some slivered almonds and top it! Or for that matter put them in the collards!

Buon appetito!!