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Rice Cakes
(Frittelle di riso) Cook the rice in milk, adding a small quantity of butter, some salt, half a teaspoon of sugar and just a taste of lemon peel. Let the rice cool down after being thoroughly cooked, then add three yolks of eggs (for 1/4 lb. of rice) and some flour. Mix well and let the whole rest for several hours. When about to fry, beat the white of the eggs to a froth, add to the rice mixing slowly, and put into the saucepan with a ladle. 28
A rice fritter batter built like a thick, cooled rice pudding, lightened with beaten whites just before frying. The original assumes you know it is deep-fried and gives no quantities for milk or flour.
- "Put into the saucepan" means deep fatThe saucepan is holding hot frying oil or lard, not a dry pan; the recipe says "when about to fry" but never names the fat or the heat. Modern practice would be fat at around 350-360F, dropping the batter in by ladle or heaped spoonful a few at a time and turning once, until cooked through to the centre.
- Quantity of rice1/4 lb is roughly half to two-thirds of a cup of raw rice, enough for something like a dozen or two small fritters depending on size. The recipe names no variety; a starchy short grain such as Arborio or Vialone Nano will bind better than long grain.
- Milk is unmeasuredCook the rice as you would a rice pudding on the stovetop, in enough milk to be absorbed almost entirely; start with about 4 times the volume of the rice and add more as it drinks. The finished mass should be thick enough to mound on a spoon, not soupy.
- Flour is also unmeasuredAdd only enough to hold the batter together once the yolks are in, on the order of 2-3 tablespoons for this quantity. Too much and the fritters turn bready rather than creamy.
- Lemon peelUse a wide strip of zest with no white pith, added to the milk and fished out before the rice cools. Grated zest can be left in, but the original intends flavouring rather than texture.
- The rest is not optionalThe recipe calls for several hours' rest before the whites go in, which lets the cooked starch set so the fritters hold their shape in the fat. A slack, warm batter will spread and drink oil.
- Whites last, and only at the last minuteFold the beaten whites in gently just before frying; they are the only leavening. If the mixture sits after they go in, the foam collapses and the fritters fry dense.
- ServingThe recipe stops at the frying and says nothing about finishing, but the half teaspoon of sugar in the rice is too little to sweeten the dish, and fritters of this kind are conventionally drained and dusted with sugar while hot.
Frittelle di riso belong to a family of Italian fried sweets tied to the calendar rather than the dessert menu: in Tuscany they are traditionally associated with St Joseph's Day on 19 March, and elsewhere they turn up in Carnival week, when frying and sugar were the point of the season. The technique is thrift dressed up, using leftover or purpose-made sweet rice cooked in milk and enriched with eggs, the same principle as arancini or supplì on the savoury side. Rice sits in a category of its own in Italian practice, and can go in either direction, sweet or savoury.