Rice Balls ~ Italy

[Twitchin Kitten]

These cheesy fried rice balls are served with Italian dinners as a side or you can make them a main meal.

Rice Balls

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
  
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
  
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley
  
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1 quart water
  
• 1 tsp (additional) salt
  
• 1 cup uncooked white rice
  
• 1 1/2 cups dried flavored bread crumbs
  
• 2 cups olive oil
  
• *note: if you have a deep fryer, you can use that instead of pan frying
  

IN a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cheese, parsley, pepper and 1 tsp salt. Cover and refrigerate.

Pour water and 1 tsp salt into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in rice and reduce heat to low. Cook rice until water is almost absorbed, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and pour in egg mixture, stirring rapidly to prevent egg from scrambling.
Allow rice to cool for 1 hour at room temp.

Pout bread crumbs into a pile on on end of a cutting board. Dampen your hands and roll rice mixture into a ball - the size is your choosing! (we usually like them the size of baseballs. some like them small like meatballs)
Now coat each ball with bread crumbs.

*note: You can add some browned chop meat and peas and a dab of tomato sauce in the middle of these before rolling in crumbs if you like. We do that and make the balls big and this is now a main meal!

In a small, deep skillet, heat olive oil to 350° and fry each ball turning as needed until evenly browned on all sides. Drain on paper towels and serve warm.

*note: you can use a deep fryer for this last part frying one or two large balls at a time or 6 small ones at a time. Temperature is the same for the oil in your deep fryer.

If serving them large put them on a plate and have a gravy bowl with sauce on the side.