In The Echoes of Love, one of the dishes that my heroine Venetia samples on a date to a Sicilian restaurant with Paolo is called arancini. It’s so delicious I thought I’d share with you some details today.

Arancini are essentially golden brown rice balls. The dish dates back a long way in Sicilian history – to around the tenth century – and the name relates to arancina, which is Italian for little orange, the shape of a rice ball. As the chef in the restaurant in The Echoes of Love points out, they are ‘as typical of Sicily as hot dogs and apple pie are of America’. At their most basic, they are balls of rice coated with breadcrumbs and fried, but you can add all sorts of flavours to the rice:

• Aubergine
• Mozzarella
• Mushrooms
• Olives
• Onions
• Peas
• Pistachios
• Saffron

You can also serve them with sauces, such as ragu, simple tomato, marinara, arrabiata or béchamel. They can be eaten as antipasti, and they’re ideal for using up ingredients you have in the fridge – the rice, for example, need not be freshly cooked. Here’s a simple recipe to try for basic mozzarella balls:

Ingredients:

2 cups rice, cooked and cooled

½ cup finely grated Parmesan

3 eggs

1 ball of fresh mozzarella, cut into chunks

1 cup breadcrumbs (fresh or dried)

Vegetable oil

1. In a bowl mix together the rice and Parmesan with one egg. Abandon the spoon and dive in with your hands, kneading the ingredients together.
2. Make eight to ten balls out of the mixture, squeezing firmly into shape.
3. Press a chunk of mozzarella into the centre of each ball and cover over with so the cheese is hidden inside.
4. Refrigerate the balls for half an hour so that they firm up.
5. Beat the remaining two eggs.
6. Roll each ball in the beaten egg, and then the breadcrumbs.
7. Fry in hot vegetable or olive oil until golden brown (about five to six minutes), then blot on paper towels.

Serve warm with a sauce of your choice. I find a rocket salad with balsamic dressing works well on the side. Enjoy!