Arangini

Often when a train has stopped at a small station in Italy or Sicily, the attendant wheeling the 'Tavola Calda', the trolley containing hot food to be consumed on the train, makes his way down the platform to the accompaniment of the cry ' Aran-g-e-e-e-e-e-ni', and the hardy traveller who takes a chance
on this typically Italian tit-bit is handed a piece of brown paper, containing a warm mound of rice, the colour of a pale orange, the best way of eating which is out of the paper, using the paper later as a napkin to wipe mouth and hands.


To make 8 of these 'delicacies', you will need the following ingredients :

• 1 lb. rice f lb. lean minced 
• 4 tablespoons grated beef 
• Parmesan 2 tablespoons 
• 1 beaten egg chopped parsley 
• 1 tablespoon olive 2 hard boiled eggs 
• oil (a refinement, this black pepper addition) 
• a pinch of salt breadcrumbs and 
• oil for deep frying

Cook the rice in boiling, salted water, drain and mix with half the beaten egg. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan, brown the minced meat in this, remove from the heat and mix with grated cheese, parsley and — if used — chopped hard boiled eggs.
Rinse the hands in cold water, take a handful of cooked rice, and in the centre of this place a generous portion of the foregoing mixture, closing the rice up to encase the mixture and form a ball. Repeat this until all the rice and all the filling is used up. Dip the balls in the balance of the beaten egg, coat
with fine breadcrumbs and fry in deep, hot oil until they have taken on a light golden-brown colour.

A few left-over cooked spring peas are a welcome addition to the other ingredients.

The above recipe makes a delicious dish for home consumption, that is good eaten with hot tomato sauce, using any of the recipes under the heading 'SAUCES'. The railway station variety is rather less luxurious, and the hard boiled eggs are usually conspicuous by their absence, but nevertheless, it is tasty and filling on a long journey when there is no restaurant car on the train.