I make rice balls from a Risotto recipe that I got on Giada DeLaurentis' cooking show. They are called Arancini di Riso and are made from the leftover recipe of Risotto with peas, mushrooms, etc. In the middle of the rice ball you push in a small chunk of Mozzarella and then fry them. They are delicious.

I don't know how to paste that recipe here because I am pretty much computer challenged, but if you go to the food network and go to her show, Everyday Italian, you will find it, along with reviews by people who have tried the recipe. I think they are delicious. (And so is the Risotto that is used to make them)

This *does* sound really good!

Alexa

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Arancini di Riso Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: about 20 servings
User Rating:

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
2 cups Risotto with Mushrooms and Peas, recipe follows, cooled
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 1/2 cups dried Italian-style bread crumbs
2 ounces mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Salt

Pour enough oil in a heavy large saucepan to reach the depth of 3 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.
Stir the eggs, risotto, Parmesan, and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs in a large bowl to combine. Place the remaining breadcrumbs in a medium bowl. Using about 2 tablespoons of the risotto mixture for each, form the risotto mixture into 1 3/4-inch-diameter balls. Insert 1 cube of mozzarella into the center of each ball. Roll the balls in the bread crumbs to coat.

Working in batches, add the rice balls to the hot ail and cook until brown and heated through, turning them as necessary, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rice balls to paper towels to drain. Season with salt. Let rest 2 minutes. Serve hot.

Mushroom Risotto with Peas:
8 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
1/2-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups finely chopped onions
10 ounces white mushrooms, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice or short-grain white rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, optional

Bring the broth to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan. Add the porcini mushrooms. Set aside until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Keep the broth warm over very low heat.
Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the white mushrooms and garlic. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the porcini mushrooms to a cutting board. Finely chop the mushrooms and add to the saucepan. Saute until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and let it toast for a few minutes. Add the wine; cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Continue to cook until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy, adding more broth by cupfuls and stirring often, about 28 minutes (the rice will absorb 6 to 8 cups of broth). Stir in the peas. Mix in the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

Episode#: EI1B12
Copyright 2003 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved

Here's my recipe - as old as the hills.

Rice Balls
2 cups minced cold meat
1 egg
1 bacon rasher, chopped
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 cups cooked rice
1 onion, chopped
1 dessertspoon curry powder

Lightly fry onion and bacon. Add curry and brown. Stir in other ingredients. Form into 30 small balls, roll in cornflour and shallow fry. Serve hot or cold.

Thanks Twinkledome - that sounds really really good! Thank you Caliloo for posting it. It will get me to finally make risotto too which I never have!

Daisy, I absolutely love reading your recipes.

These all sound good to me, I've never eaten a rice ball.

Didn't Eileen Launonen have a recipe a few years ago? Where is that girl anyway, she just faded away!

here's Eileen's recipe and the thread it was on. Maybe she got busy with catering? Wasn't she starting up a new business with that? and she had a baby, too. She sure has been MIA for a long time.

Spinache Arincini (Rice Balls) (EileenLaunonen)

1/4 cup EVOO
1 onion chopped fine
3 cloves Garlic minced
1 1/2 cup Aborio Rice
1 cup white wine
salt pepper to taste
4 cups chicken broth (I use college inn)
2 cups chopped spinache (FRESH)
2 tablespoons butter
1 1 1/2 cup Parm Cheese
1 cup small cubed mozzarella
2 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups Italian Bread crumbs
vegetable oil for frying

In a large deep saucepan (I use my 14" fry pan) over medium heat add EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) add onion and saute for 1 minute add garlic and stir frequently cooking for 5 minutes add rice and wine salt and pepper. Ladle 16 oz of brothe over rice mixture cook down for 10 minutes keep reating until all is absorbed. Add spinache and stir in butter mix well Add 1 cup of Parmesean cheese stir well and remove from stove.

On a baking tray lined with Plastice Wrap or Parchment Spread the rice mixture evenly and cover with plastic wrap Refrigerate overnight....Next day remove plastic wrap and cover rice mixture with the remaining Parmesean cheese. With your hands take some and roll into a ball a little bigger than a meatball around a cube of the mozzarella reapeat until all rice mixture is gone and all you have are the rice balls. Place flour egg and bread crumb in seperate bowls...coat each ball in flour then egg then bread crumb fry balls in batches not overcrowding the pan and drain on paper towel Turn the balls and fry on all sides until golden brown. Should serve when done but I have reheated in the oven on aluminum foil and they were fine.

I had saved Eileen's recipe also and have been missing her. She never came back after starting her catering. Business must be good!

maggie2094. Cooking Risotto is fun cookin' for me. You may get hooked.

Daisy: Love the descriptions in your recipe. What is it's origin?

Twinkledome - many of my recipes come from collections passed down through generations of my family. Some come from similar collections I've been given by other people. Most go back a long way - in my case at least to my great-grandmother - that's mid-1800s.

It's a tradition that is sadly dying out, that mothers gave their daughters a collection of handwritten recipes and handy hints when the daughters became brides. When the daughter herself became the mother of a bride, the collection was handed to the new generation, much added to over the years. And so it went. I therefore have some absolute GEMS in my collection!

No recipe is ever kept posterity if it wasn't popular or was in any way a failure. If they appear in such a collection, they have to be goodies. That's the way I see it, anyway.

Thanks for sharing that daisyduckworth. I just found a recipe box of my late mother's at my father's home from when she was very young. Many of the recipes are written in Swedish so I will have to get them interpreted, others are fairly easy to figure out. I brought the recipe box back with me plus a number of others she used through the years and had been planning to reproduce them for my daughter and then give her the originals when I go to Heaven. Items like these are so precious to many women. It really links us to our mothers, grandmothers, etc.

How fortunate for you that you have all those generations to treasure in this way.

Twinkledome, I sent you an email - you mentioned getting some recipes translated from Swedish to English and I just wanted to mention that if you have any trouble doing that, I have some very close friends who are Swedish and I'd be happy to ask them for some help, if you need it. Maybe your husband's family still speaks Swedish or have connections in Sweden, but just in case, let me know.

woodie2 Thank you for sending me an email. But, I can't find it. Would you be so kind as to send again. I think it would be great to have the translations for these old recipes. My mother's family are the Swedes and they are all gone to Valhalla.

Twinkleson!

Twinkle - I have had some troubles sending emails on the Garden Web system - some of them get through and some of them don't. If you'd like to email me, I can arrange to send your recipes to Sweden for translation - don't know how long it will take but my friend would be happy to help. You can email to me at encorewoodie at aol dot com.

i read this post because i thought i had saved a recipe for rice balls from "the frugal gourmet", that i've wanted to try for quite some time. and can't find it. then i read the follow-ups by twinkledome and daisy and it nearly brought me to tears because i am SO very annoyed with myself and i can't "fix" it!

when ted and i got engaged, my mother bought a recipe box and into it, wrote out what she knew were my favorite things that she cooked for us while growing up. some of them i never made (she was a great baker and generally speaking, i "don't do" cakes or cookies...) and others i still do on a recurring basis. in any case, eventually i needed a bigger recipe box and picked one that was different in style so i rewrote most of them and tossed the others. how could i be that unthinking??? that was probably 20 years ago and even though i knew i'd never have children to pass them on to, i can't believe i didn't save them, just for me. i honestly hope all of you are smarter than that...