Arancini – Sugar Spun Run

Arancini are perfectly crispy and cheesy Sicilian fried rice balls. Between preparing the risotto and deep frying, the process may seem intimidating but it’s really not and I’ll be walking you through all the steps with how-to photos and a step-by step video! I fill mine with mozzarella, but you can use peas, ham, or whatever you like!

Italian Fried Rice Balls

Arancini, aka Sicilian fried rice balls, are a quintessential Italian street food. If you’ve never had them, you’re in for a treat! The outside is golden-crisp, and the interior is soft with pearly risotto and a melty mozzarella core. Serve them with a side of marinara sauce for that classic flavor!

These rice balls are super versatile and adaptable; you can dress things up by adding some garlic in with the onion, or add ham or peas to the filling (you can even skip the mozzarella). I like this more basic but super flavorful version, though.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Crispy, even coating from my proven breading technique borrowed from my mozzarella sticks, coconut shrimp, and jalapeno poppers.
• Can be made with leftover risotto or fresh. I include instructions for making fresh risotto if that’s what you’d prefer, or you can use 3 ¾ cups of leftover risotto.
• Customizable filling options; I like using cheese, but feel free to add peas, ham, or use meat sauce!
• Tastes great plain, but is even better with a dipping sauce of marinara, vodka sauce, or arrabiata sauce (if you like it spicy!).

Ingredients

Let’s review a few of the key ingredients in this recipe before we get started.

• Arborio rice. Arborio rice is the best choice (and the best choice when making risotto), as it is starchy and will help our arancini keep their shape. Carnaroli rice could be used instead, but most likely arborio will be most accessible at your grocery store.
• Cheese. We’ll use parmesan cheese in the risotto itself and mozzarella as our filling. Make sure your parmesan is freshly shredded (do it yourself!) and use a block of mozzarella for the filling (not the fresh mozzarella that comes in a ball, that can be much too wet). The mozzarella will need to be diced so that the rice can be neatly rolled around it.
• White wine. A bit of wine is used to flavor the risotto, though you could substitute more broth or chicken stock if you don’t keep wine on hand. If using wine, choose a dry white wine like Pinot Grigio.
• Plain panko. We flavor this ourselves with a simple blend of seasoning and cheese (though you could use Italian panko in a pinch). This serves as our breading and ensures a perfectly crispy exterior on our arancini. Note that we won’t be using this straight from the container; I like to crush the panko into fine crumbs first. This is my secret for an even, crisp coating!
• Oil. Use a good oil for frying, like vegetable oil or canola oil. Avocado oil should also work (it’s just quite expensive!).

This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Arancini

Prepare the Risotto

If you’re using leftover risotto you can of course skip this step (and I even already have a step-by-step guide in my standalone risotto recipe), but I thought it would be helpful to walk through the whole process, rather than just skip to the breading and frying!

Before you begin, pour your chicken broth into a saucepan and warm it over low heat. To cook the risotto, you’ll be adding broth throughout the process and you want it to be warm, otherwise it can cause the cooking time to take much longer and could make the rice end up mushy.

1. Cook the onion in melted butter until softened and translucent (I like to cut my onion nice and tiny so it blends well with the rice).
2. Stir in the rice and cook until coated in butter and lightly toasted. This is key for developing flavor!
3. Drizzle in the wine and cook until it’s completely absorbed.
4. Gradually add the warm chicken broth a bit at a time, only adding the next addition once the previous one has fully absorbed. Stop once your risotto is al dente (a bit firm to the bite, you don’t want to overcook it or it’ll be mushy); you may not need all of the liquid, or you may need more. When it’s finished cooking, you’ll notice that if you scrape your spatula through the rice it gently and slowly rolls back in on itself.

Finish & Cool the Risotto

5. Remove the risotto from the heat and stir in the butter, cheese, and parsley. Taste test for more salt and pepper (between the salt in the broth and parmesan I rarely need to add salt).
6. Spread onto a baking sheet, then cover and place in the fridge. If you’re not in a hurry to make the arancini, you can just put this in any container and cover and refrigerate, but spreading it out like this speeds up the cooling process so you can get to frying faster!

Assemble & Fry

1. Form the risotto into balls (I use a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop for this, I linked to mine in the recipe card). Press a cube of mozzarella in the center of each one, then form the rice evenly around so the cheese is entirely concealed.
2. Coat: roll each rice ball through flour, then eggs, and finally panko. Place in the fridge while your oil heats.
3. Fry in hot oil, working with 2-3 arancini at a time. Once golden brown, remove to a paper towel lined plate or cooling rack. Let your oil come back to temperature before frying your next batch.

SAM’S TIP: Take care to place the mozzarella in the very center of the arancini. If it’s exposed or too near the edge, it could spill out while frying (a tragedy!).

Tips for Frying

• Set up your station ahead of time. I like to have a rimmed cookie sheet topped with a cooling rack and paper towel beside me so I can let the arancini drain after frying.
• Heat slowly and use a thermometer. I keep my stovetop just below medium heat. Any higher and I find it becomes too hot too quickly and burns the outside.
• Keep your arancini in the fridge until the oil is hot. This helps them hold their shape so they don’t fall apart when you add them to the hot oil.
• Fry just 2-3 arancini at a time. Adding too many at once can drop your oil temperature and create soggy arancini.
• Let the oil come back to temperature after frying each batch, as it generally tends to cool as it cooks the arancini. Adding the next batch too soon can cause soggy, inconsistent results.

SAM’S TIP: A cookie scoop is ideal for getting uniform arancini that cook at the same rate. Of course, you could make yours smaller (or bigger!) if you want.

Frequently Asked Questions

Arancini make a great appetizer for baked ziti or fettuccine alfredo! Or, you can simply enjoy them for dinner with a side salad–I won’t judge!

Enjoy!

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