Sicilian Arancini, Montalbano's Croquettes

Looking through Sicilian Feasts, I see that saffron is used in the rice mixture. It's also mentioned in Sicilian Home Cooking: Family Recipes from Gangivecchio. Depending upon where you live, the saffron could be the most expensive ingredient, so I whipped up another batch of rice, covering it with a blend of half white wine, half water and a pinch of yellow food colouring. It tasted just fine.

This is enough for ten balls

2 cups of Arborio rice

1 sachet of saffron

Cup of thick Italian tomato sauce with peas. I used 1/2 cup of frozen green peas.

A cup of cheese. The Sicilian recipes call for canestrato fresco, but you'd have to be on Sicily itself to get that. Use finely sliced and diced mozzarella instead.

2 eggs

3 cups of breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper - A little olive oil - Vegetable oil for frying

Cook the rice and saffron in salted water until soft and yellow. Drain.

Add a blob of olive oil to stop the rice sticking

Add the cheese and season with freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. Cool.

Beat the eggs with a little salt and pepper.

Now to roll the balls. Wet your hand and spread some rice mixture, about one inch in thickness, on your palm.

Add a dollop of the sauce into the middle of the mixture and close the rice into a little ball about the size of a small orange.

Close your hand to make a ball, ensuring the filling is completely enclosed by the rice. Squeeze it a little so that the contents are securely enclosed.

Why the size of a small orange? The colour for a start, and the Italian word for orange is arancia. In Sicilian, arancici means "little oranges".

When you've rolled up all the mixture into little balls, roll them one at a time in the beaten egg.

Then drop them into a bowl of breadcrumbs. You can use a plastic bag for the breadcrumbs, drop in a ball at a time and shake the bag.

Heat the oil and deep fry the balls until golden brown. Remove the balls and put them on a paper towel to get rid of any excess oil.

Place in a hot oven for 5 minutes to brown them further and to make sure the filling is melted.

Serve while hot and crunchy!