Arancini III

Directions

1. Place the wine and saffron in a cup or small bowl. Stir briefly, then let it sit. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion; cook and stir until transparent, about 3 minutes. Mix in the rice, and continue cooking and stirring until the rice has absorbed most of the butter.
2. Slowly stir the white wine and saffron into the rice, stirring continuously until the wine is absorbed and rice is creamy. Season with thyme, then pour in 1 cup of chicken broth at a time, cooking and stirring constantly until each cup of broth is absorbed before adding the next. Stop adding broth when the rice is tender. If you run out of broth, you may use water. Remove from the heat, stir in the Parmesan cheese and allow to cool until you can touch it without burning your hands.
3. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet with olive oil. Pour the risotto out onto the sheet and spread evenly. Place in the refrigerator for about 1 hour or until chilled.
4. When the rice is cool, roll small portions into balls about the size of golf balls. Tuck a cube of fontina cheese into the center of each one. Roll each ball in bread crumbs to coat.
5. Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan or deep fryer to 375 degrees F 190 degrees C). The oil should be about 3 inches deep. When the oil is hot, fry the arancini until they reach a golden orangish brown, about 3 minutes. Arancini literally means 'little oranges'. Cool for 5 minutes, then serve with any marinara sauce.

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Reviews (11)

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16

Dave W.

Jul. 16, 2007

"The only changes I made to this recipe were that I used 1 tsp. dried thyme because I didn't have fresh, and I used Mozzarella cheese because I couldn't find Fontina. I am puzzled by the indication tha..." See moret this recipe yields 6 servings. Dividing the risotto mixture into 6 produces croquettes about 3-1/2" diam. each, which is about the size of a softball, and that's before inserting the cheese! Dividing the risotto into 36 instead, produced croquettes about 1-3/4" diam., and were the right size for inserting 3/4" cubes of cheese. Once filled with the cheese, each croquette is about 2" diam. Final note...only 2/3 cup of bread crumbs was required to coat all 36 arancini croquettes. I enjoyed these, but am only giving this 4 stars because two in my family aren't big fans of Parmesan (necessary, because it's the "glue" that holds the risotto together). Hope these notes are helpful."

15

Debbie

Oct. 2, 2007

"I learned to make this recipe in an Italian Cooking class I took. My husband, who doesn't like rice, begs for these. We also added diced fine ham. We were told this is a staple in Sicilian househol..." See moreds"

14

Addie

Oct. 3, 2006

"Who knew risotto could get any better? I used this to get rid of left overs, and it was great. I didn't have a deep frier so I pan fried them. They were a little lop sided, but tasted great...." See more"