Arancini Siciliani Al Ragù

For the filling:

600 g ground beef

150 g peas (split from about 450 g pea pods)

2 pieces of celery

2 bunches of parsley (smooth)

1 bunch basil

2 onions

400 ml beef broth

200 ml white wine

140 g tomato paste

8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt

Peperoncino (powder)

1400 g rice

500 g mozzarella

6 eggs

200 g breadcrumbs

8 tablespoons butter

salt

Olive oil (for frying)

Finely chop the onions and parsley. Cut the celery into very small cubes. First cut the veal fillet into coarser pieces. Given the quantity of ingredients, it is recommended to fry all the ingredients separately (if you want to make a smaller quantity, you can of course fry several ingredients together): So first, in a pan oiled with a little olive oil, sear the meat, salt and pepper it, remove it from the pan and put it in a large pot. Brown the ground beef in an oiled pan, salt and pepper it, chop the meat while frying, remove it from the pan and add it to the pot. Saute onions in oiled pan until translucent, remove and add to pot as well.

Saute the celery briefly, remove from the pan and add to the pot.

Cut the meat, which has cooled in the meantime, into small pieces and add to the pot along with half of the parsley. Stirring, heat the contents of the pot and simmer for a few minutes, then deglaze with wine and simmer a little more.

In the meantime, make meat stock, stir the tomato paste into it and add to the pot.

Sprinkle in the peas and mushrooms and simmer, with the lid off, over low-medium heat for about 40 minutes, until the liquid has boiled away (if there is still liquid, transfer the ragù to a strainer to drain off excess liquid, otherwise the arancini will be too wet and fall apart).

When the liquid has boiled away, add the finely chopped basil and the other half of the parsley and season with salt and peperoncino - the flavor must be quite strong, as the rice does not taste so intense.

In a large pot with 2400 ml salted water, cook 1400 g rice at low temperature with lid closed in a good 20 minutes al dente; stir frequently after the first 10 min!

Mix in 8 tablespoons of butter.

Let it cool down a bit, then mix in 6 beaten eggs (the eggs must not falter).

To prepare for shaping the rice balls, use two soup plates: One is filled with lukewarm water (to moisten hands), the other with breadcrumbs.

On the palm of one hand moistened with water, spread about 58 g of rice in a circle, flat, put in the center about 16 g (one and a half teaspoons) of ragù and 11 g of the mozzarella, then bend up the rice on the edges of the circle and cover with another piece of rice on top, forming a rice lump.

Press the lump of rice firmly with your hands (so that the air escapes and the mixture sticks together well due to the egg as a binder) and round it between your moistened hands; ideally, there will be only rice on the outside and the ragù filling on the inside. Roll the rice ball in breadcrumbs.

When all the balls are formed (with the standard quantity there should be about 44 rice balls), fry them in batches for about 7 minutes at 170 ° C in the deep fryer - until the arancini have a nice orange color.