Rice balls: the recipe for a delicious finger food – Tale Of Travels

The rice balls I am a antipasti simple and delicious, ideal to serve as an appetizer at dinner, perhaps accompanied by a delicate tomato sauce. Perfect for reusing leftover rice the day before, these dumplings are also very easy to prepare: with few ingredients you will get crispy and tasty balls that everyone will love.

We prepare them using rice, butter, parmesan, parsley and an egg as a binder, but you can customize the recipe to your tastes or what you have in the fridge. So here’s how to prepare golden and inviting rice balls, to fry in the pan, as in our case, or to bake in the oven.

How to make rice balls

First cook the rice in salted boiling water 1.

Once cooked, drain it and put it in a bowl with the butter (2) mixing well.

Also add the chopped parsley, parmesan, egg 3 and a pinch of pepper.

Stir with a spoon until all ingredients are combined 4. If the mixture seems too soft, add breadcrumbs until you get the right consistency.

With moistened or lightly oiled hands, take a little of the mixture and form the meatballs (5) making sure that they are well compacted so as not to open during cooking.

Place them on a plate with the breadcrumbs and, swirling them around, coat them evenly (6).

At this point, fry the meatballs in hot oil seventurning them often to brown them on all sides.

When they are golden brown (8), drain them and place them on a plate covered with absorbent paper to remove excess oil.

Serve the rice balls hot (9).

Tips

For a lighter alternative, you can cook rice balls cookedat 200°C for about 25 minutes, or In the caserole with a drizzle of oil: in this case the meatballs will not be fried, but will be just as golden and crispy.

You can enrich your rice balls with potatoes, tuna, crumbled sausage, diced cooked ham, bacon bits. For a stringy filling, add a cube of Mozzarellaprovola o milk cream. To flavor the rice, you can add a pinch of Saffron or bechamel. Instead of parmesan, you can use grated pecorino or gruyere.

Rice balls can be breaded simply by tossing them in breadcrumbs or, if you like extra crispy breadings, you can make one similar to Sicilian Arancini: Dip the meatballs first in the flour, then in the lightly beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. If you want an extra crunch, you can repeat the last two steps a second time.