The first recipe for rice fritters is contained in the book Maestro Martino di Como of the fifteenth century.
This specialty is common in Central Italy, frequent on the occasion of the feast of San Giuseppe. My great aunt Ada made them not only for the anniversary of St. Joseph, but often for the delight of her greedy husband.

St. Joseph's rice fritters

  • Preparation time: 60 minutes
  • Ingredients for 20 fritters
  • Difficulty: Easy recipe

  • Ingredients
  • 5 oz or 150 g of rice
  • 2 cups or ½ l of milk
  • 1 oz or 30 g of butter
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 oz or 50 g of sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3 oz or 80 g of flour
  • 1 tablespoon of aniseed liqueur
  • ¾ oz or 20 g of raisins
  • 1 teaspoon or 8 g of chemical yeast
  • Peanut oil to taste
  • Vanilla sugar to taste
  1. Instructions
  2. Soak the raisins for about ten minutes in boiling water. After this period, drain and squeeze them well.
  3. Boil the rice in the milk together with the butter and the lemon zest until the milk is completely absorbed. Let it cool by first removing the lemon zest.
  4. In a bowl, mix the egg with the sugar and liqueur. Add the sifted yeast and flour, then finally the cold rice and raisins.
  5. In a saucepan full of oil, fry a few fritters at a time until golden brown.
  6. Drain them and place them on paper towels – when lukewarm, sprinkle them with vanilla sugar.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • For those who do not like aniseed liqueur, like myself, limoncello can be used
  • The rice must be at room temperature when it is inserted into the mixture because the chemical yeast loses its leavening property if inserted into hot dough.
  • You can pick up the rice mixture with a teaspoon before immersing it in the boiling oil. However, I moisten my hands with oil and model the dough into many small meatballs.
  • Put a few fritters in to fry at the same time in order to avoid lowering the oil temperature too much

Aunt Ada