Time
2 hours
Serves
4
Difficulty
Medium
Ingredients
2 cups rice
1/2 sachet of saffron
340g of ground beef
400g canned whole peeled tomatoes
2/3 cup shelled peas
6 eggs
3/4 cup fresh caciocavallo cheese (or another stretch-curd cow’s milk cheese)
3 1/3 cups oil for frying
1 stick butter
1/2 onion
2 1/3 cups flour
2 1/3 cups breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Boil the rice and drain it when it is still firm to the bite.
Mix it with the saffron, three eggs and half of the butter, and let it cool.
Blanch the peas, drain them and gently sauté them in the remaining butter.
In a separate pan, soften the finely chopped onion in a little oil. Then add the ground beef, a little salt, pepper, and drained and chopped whole peeled tomatoes. Simmer gently covered. Once the sauce is ready, mix in the peas.
To prepare the rice balls, take a little of the rice mixture and form it into a shell shape, place in the middle the filling of meat and peas, a small cube of the caciocavallo cheese, and cover it with more of the rice mixture to form a ball.
Dip the balls in flour to coat them completely. Then dip them in the beaten egg mixture seasoned with salt. Then dip them in breadcrumbs.
Fry the rice balls in enough oil to fully cover them at a medium-high temperature.
