Passion For Pasta: Fancy fritters fit for a picnic

We’ve been blessed with some lovely weather in recent weeks, and these incredibly light fritters would make any lockdown garden picnic a reason to smile.

They are something sweet that uses risotto rice but they are not a classic rice pudding.

I give you delicious rice fritters!

These can be made in advance and they freeze incredibly well too, once cooked and cooled.

The flavours are interchangeable so you could also use lemon or clementine zest in the rice batter and change the alcoholic notes of the sweet syrup with your favourite tipple.

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Chilling time: 1 hour

Frying time: 15 minutes

Makes: 15 fritters

Ingredients (fritters):

750ml full fat milk

160g Riso Gallo Carnaroli risotto rice

75g caster sugar

1 orange, zest

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 large eggs, separated

50g 00 flour or plain flour

Orange sauce:

250ml orange juice

75g caster sugar

1 tsp cornflour

30ml limoncello

Plus:

Olive oil for frying, as required

Icing sugar, for dusting

Method:

Into a saucepan, combine the milk, rice, and sugar. Stir.

Add the orange zest and vanilla, combine.

Cook over a low heat for approximately 20 minutes until cooked.

Stir the rice intermittently using a risotto spoon (wooden spoon with a hole in the centre).

Taste to check the rice grains for readiness.

Once cooked, spread the rice on to a baking tray and allow to cool.

Prepare the sauce. Add the orange juice and sugar to a small saucepan and cook over a high heat for 4 minutes.

Whisk in the cornflour and add the limoncello. Continue to whisk until slightly thickened. Set aside and keep the sauce warm for serving.

Add the egg yolks to the cooled rice along with the flour, stir well.

Whip up the egg whites into fluffy peaks. Fold the whites through the rice and set aside (the egg whites lighten the rice batter).

Into a sauté pan, add the oil (2.5cm depth) and bring to a medium heat.

Working in small manageable batches, add tablespoon amounts of the rice mixture and fry until golden brown on both sides. This should take approximately five minutes in total.

Allow the cooked fritters to drain on a little parchment paper or kitchen roll.

Serve with a dusting of vanilla icing sugar and a small drizzle of the orange and limoncello sauce.

Carmela’s tip: Instead of making an orange sauce you could simply drizzle the warm fritters with a little borage honey.