Arrancini

I found really delicious arrancini. They were extremely fresh and especially the ones with spinach were very tasty. I've eaten arrancini many times and there were a lot of them that didn't taste particularly good, but I can highly recommend this one from the Rusticante Panineria in Butera.

Arancini, also arancine, are rice balls that are stuffed, coated with breadcrumbs and deep-fried. They are a staple of Sicilian cuisine. The most common arancini fillings are: al ragù or al sugo, filled with ragù (meat or mince, slow-cooked at low temperature with tomato sauce and spices), mozzarella or caciocavallo cheese, and often peas, and al burro or ô burru, filled with ham and mozzarella or besciamella.

A number of regional variants exist which differ in their fillings and shape. Arancini al ragù produced in eastern Sicily particularly cities such as Catania & Messina have a conical shape inspired by the volcano Etna.

They are said to have originated in 10th-century Sicily, at a time when the island was under Arab rule. Its origins may therefore be possibly the same as Levantine kibbeh.

In the cities of Palermo, Siracusa, and Trapani in Sicily, arancini are a traditional food for the feast of Santa Lucia on 13 December, when bread and pasta are not eaten. This commemorates the arrival of a grain supply ship on Santa Lucia's day in 1646, relieving a severe famine.

Today, with the increasing popularity of this finger food in modern Italian food culture, arancini are found all year round at most Sicilian food outlets, particularly in Palermo, Messina and Catania. The dish was traditionally created to provide a full meal to Federico II di Svevia during his hunting activities.

So it you are around, try theses ones!Read more