You’ll Win Christmas Dinner With These Homemade Rice Balls

No Christmas dinner table is complete without arancini, and we’re sharing a 100-year-old recipe with you so you can make your own.

The recipe comes from Sicily and is a time-honored tradition. My family gets together one day every December to take out the wooden spoons, roll up our sleeves and dive into making rice balls.

The ingredient list is simple but a lot of the taste depends on how you season the filling so try the meat as you go along. Or forego the meat to make vegetarian rice balls. We’ve used gluten-free bread crumbs in the past (though the crumbs don’t always stick when frying). No matter how you decide to adapt the recipe, there’s a variation everyone will love.

The key is having the right-sized hands to make the perfect shape – and you have to be patient when rolling the rice. Or, get the kids involved and use their smaller hands to roll mini balls. Aprons required.

Once you perfect your technique, let’s play ball!

Ingredients:

3 cups dry Carolina white rice (makes about 9 cups cooked)
2 pounds sirloin or chuck ground beef (80/20 fat percentage is preferred)
2 sweet white onions, medium
3 bags frozen peas
6-10 eggs
1 pound shredded mozzarella
1-2 containers of breadcrumbs
4-6 jars of marinara sauce (regular or tomato basil)
Spices: oregano, basil, parsley, oregano, salt, black pepper
Grated cheese
Olive oil (to cook the onions)
Canola oil (for frying)

Rice:

1. Cook the rice according to the package and set it aside to cool – the rice should be at room temperature when you start to roll; it can be made the day before.

2. When it’s cool you will add marinara sauce, enough to make the rice look red but not enough where it’s soggy. The rice needs to hold its shape when frying.

3. You can add egg yolks to the rice if you need it to hold better. Or, if it’s too sticky, add a little bit of water.

4. You can add seasoning to the rice if you like.

The Filling:

1. Chop the onions.

2. Heat enough olive oil in a pan so you can sautee the onions.

3. Add the beef and cook thoroughly.

4. Add a little marinara, seasonings and grated cheese to taste.

5. Cook the peas according to the package.

6. Shred the mozzarella.

7. When the meat is done and slightly cooked, put it in a large bowl and add the peas and mozzarella so that all ingredients are proportioned. You can add more sauce and grated cheese if you need.

8. Keep mixing and seasoning until the filling is how you prefer.

The Balls

1. Get the family involved because the more hands, the better.

2. Set up a bowl with an egg wash: 2 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks.

3. Set up a deep frying pan and heat the canola oil for frying.

3. Set up another bowl with breadcrumbs.

2. In one hand, mold roughly a 1/4 cup of rice into the bottom of the ball.

3. Put a scoop of filling inside.

4. Add another 1/4 cup of rice on top.

5. Roll the ball into a spherical shape with your palms – not your fingers – and smooth it out. It should be the size of a baseball.

6. Gently cover the ball in the egg wash and then the breadcrumbs.

7. Fry ‘em up til golden brown – about 5 minutes.

8. When the first rice ball is fried, let it cool and taste it for texture and flavor. If it cracks when frying, you need more breadcrumbs. If it falls apart, add more egg to the breadcrumb mixture. If it’s bland, season the rice and filling.

Most importantly: Leave some for your guests! This recipe will make about 50 rice balls but it’s easy to eat a bunch while cooking. If you have filling left over, put it in a pan, cover it in mozzarella and bake it for a leftover Christmas Rice Ball Pie.

Mangia Bene! And Merry Christmas!

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