Dish · italian
Arancini
Balls of cooked risotto rice stuffed with ragu, peas, or cheese, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried until the shell turns crisp. The rice inside stays sticky and holds the filling in place.
Where it comes from
Sicily gets credit for the dish, with rice likely arriving through Arab rule of the island centuries ago, though no record fixes when rice balls turned into the fried, stuffed version sold today. Palermo and Catania shape them differently, cone-shaped in one city, round in the other.
What cooks argue about
Fillings vary by region, ragu and peas in the west, pistachio elsewhere, and cooks disagree on which counts as traditional. Rice temperature matters too: warm rice shapes easier but risks the fryer.
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