ARANCINI WITH PISTACHIO (for 6 persons)
Ingredient: 300 gr. of rice, one onion, 200 gr. of butter, 1/2 a glass of white wine, vegetable broth, sufficient salt, grated Parmesan, 250 gr. of minced beef, 300 gr. of natural, whole pistachio, 100 gr. melting cheese, 4 eggs, bread crumb, frying oil. Preparation: mince finely the onion and brown it in a saucepan with 70 gr. of butter; when it shall be well withered, add the rice stirring it several times in the sauce. Wet it with half a glass of white wine, let it evaporate, then dissolve with two ladles of hot broth. Stir well and make it cook for 25 minutes, adding other hot broth as soon as the previous is absorbed. Add also a little salt. When the cooking is finished, take the rice from the cooker, mix it with a handful of Parmesan and let it cool down. In the meantime prepare the stuffing: brown the minced meat with a knob of butter and a pinch of salt, then wet it with a little white wine and let it cook until the base of the cooking shall be completely dry. Now put the meat in a bowl, add the pistachios and the cheese roughly grated. Amalgamate everything. When the rice shall be almost cold, mix in two full eggs, adding again Parmesan, if the compound would still be too soft. Put now a large spoonful of rice in the hollow of your hand, make a sinking in the middle, place there a spoonful of stuffing and cover the whole thing with other rice making balls as big as oranges, then pass them in the two beaten eggs and brown it all over. When done, put them on a sheet of kitchen blotting paper to dry up the grease. Can be served hot or cold.
| FRITTERS THE SICILIAN WAY (for 4 persons) Ingredients: 20 gr. of pine-seeds, 100 gr. of whole pistachio, a small cup of rum, 100 gr. of flour, 100 gr. of ricotta or mascarpone (creamed cheese), 50 gr. of sugar, 2 eggs, a handful of bread crumb, some grated lemon peel, lard. Preparation: Make soak the pine-seeds in a little rum. Put the flour and the mascarpone (or ricotta) in a bowl, work it energetically with a whisk or large wooden spoon; little by little add the sugar, the pine-seeds and the rum in which had been soaked. When the all thing shall be properly amalgamated, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix the compound till it becomes homogeneous. Pour the grated bread crumbs over a well spread sheet of kitchen paper. Mix the lemon peel, finely grated, and the pistachios and pour them over another sheet of paper. Prepare the compound in fritters, make them brown on both sides, then take them away from the lard and pass them on the lemon peel and on the pistachios. Serve them hot, warm or cold as you prefer. |

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