Arancini Di Riso (Golden Fried Rice Balls)

Ingredients:

• 500g rice
• 150g breadcrumbs
• 5 eggs
• Butter
• 100g mixed cheese (e.g. mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, Pecorino cheese, Scamorza cheese)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Fresh Parsley
• 200g minced meat (pork or beef)
• Tomato sauce
• 100g peas
• 1 onion
• Olive oil

Method:

1. Boil the rice in salt water.  In the meanwhile, cut the cheese into small pieces, beat two eggs and mix them with Parmesan and a knob of butter.
2. When the rice is done, drain it.  Transfer it into a bowl, let it cool slightly and stir in the beaten eggs and the mixed cheese.  Let it finish cooling.
3. Finely slice the onion and saute it in the olive oil until it wilts.  Stir in the ground meat and cook until it is well browned. 
4. Dilute the tomato sauce in a ladle of warm water and stir it in.  Simmer it over a low flame for 40 minutes.  Add the peas after 20 minutes. 
5. With humid hands, take two small handfuls of rice and shape them into hollow hemispheres.  Place a bit of filling in the middle and melt the two halves together to obtain a smooth-sided rice ball about the size of a small orange (1.5 to 2 inches in diameter).
6. Beat the rest of the eggs, mix together breadcrumbs with pepper and parsley.  Dredge the arancinos in the beaten egg, roll it well in the breadcrumbs and fry it in abundant hot oil till they have become a golden brown.
7. Drain them on absorbent paper.