Ingredients:

• 1 lb of arborio rice (this is the type of rice used to make risotto)
• 4 oz of fresh mozzarella, grated
• 4 oz of ham, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of butter, chopped
• ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cups of breadcrumbs
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups of your favorite marinara sauce
• a little olive oil
• Vegetable oil for frying
  
  

Directions:

Cook the rice in salted water until soft. Drain it well, add the grated cheese, some freshly ground black pepper and mix well. Let it cool.

Prepare the breadcrumbs in a plate or a serving tray, put the eggs in a bowl and beat them a little, the flour in another serving plate, then your filling of choice in another plate (for this recipe I chose to fill the balls with a ham and butter mixture), take a spoonful of the cooled rice and spread it in your hand, add your filling in the middle and with your other hand try closing the rice over the filling, put the rice ball aside and make all the balls you can with this recipe, in my case I don’t like making them too large, (mine are a lemon size) so I get between 12 and 15 balls from this recipe. When you finish all the rice, then roll the balls, one by one in the flour, then in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs.

Fry in hot oil (I prefer that the oil level is up the at least the half of the balls so that way I only have to turned them once in order to get a perfect color all around) until golden brown and place then place in absorbent paper to remove any excess oil. Warm up the sauce, when ready spoon over the serving plates and then place 3 to 4 balls per plate, serve right away.

Serves 6 / Recipe from www.thepetitgourmet.com