My late Sicilian father-in-law used to delight in presenting me with food I’d never tried before. And when he showed up one day with a big, brown, baseball-sized arancini, once again I was stumped. This hefty southern Italian rice ball can be a small meal in itself, with its crispy outer layer, dense romano- and mozzarella-coated rice, and tasty stuffing of ground beef, green peas and tomato sauce. Coated with bread crumbs, arancini are fried to perfection and served warm, perhaps with a fizzy little bottle of S. Pelegrino or perhaps a nice Chianti. We found excellent and inexpensive arancini at Pasta Fresh Co. (3418 N. Harlem Ave.) for $1.75, at L’Appetito (30 E. Huron St.) for $1.90 and at Cafe 101 (101 W. St. Charles Rd., Lombard) where they go for $5.50 with a salad included. But some of our favorites come from Monastero’s Ristorante and Banquet Hall, where the Arancini Siciliana are made to order and come packed with two fresh pieces of Italian bread.
Arancini Monastero’s Ristorante
3935 W. Devon Ave.
773-588-2515
Thank you in Italiam: Grazi
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