Arancini Recipe – Rice Balls – Laura Vitale family recipe
Arancini Recipe
Rice Balls
Laura Vitale Family Recipe
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![](http://dev.everybodylovesitalian.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arancini-5.jpg)
Arancini – Italian: arancino, Sicilian: arancinu or arancina) are stuffed rice balls which are coated with bread crumbs and then deep fried. The most common filling are: “al ragù” or “al sugo”, filled with ragù (meat or mince, low temperature and long time cooked with tomato sauce and spices), mozzarella and/or caciocavallo cheese, and often peas and “al burro” or “‘a bburro” filled with ham and mozzarella or besciamella.
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A number of regional variants exist which differ in fillings and shape. The name, which is translated as “little orange”, derives from their shape and colour which, after cooking, is reminiscent of an orange. ‘Arancini al ragù’ produced in eastern Sicily have a conical shape representing the volcano Etna.
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Arancini are said to have originated in 10th-century Sicily at a time when the island was under Arab rule.
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