Have you ever ordered Arancini from an Italian restaurant? If you have not, you are missing out. These fried rice balls are such an amazing appetizer! For this Arancini Rice Ball Casserole, I decided to create a casserole that incorporates many of the delicious flavors from this Sicilian classic and adds just the right amount of fresh veggies to give you an amazing, satisfying and delicious meal all in one dish. Serve this with a fresh salad and enjoy it with a group of friends and family today!
Tips for making this recipe:
- Precook the rice and sauce to make things easier. Cold rice will work fine in this recipe, so feel free to use leftovers from the night before. Also, the sauce I use in this recipe is a great tomato sauce to use in many different ways, so cook a large batch of it to have it on hand whenever you need it.
- Feel free to leave out any of the vegetables that you aren’t crazy about or even add in any others that you love. This is such an easy recipe to modify.
- Add some crushed red pepper or use hot Italian sausage to give this recipe a little spice.
- Go ahead and sub out the meats I used for whatever you would like to experiment with. Ground turkey or turkey sausage, among other things, can be used with no problems.
My Arancini Rice Ball Casserole would go great with:
Rosemary Parmesan Focaccia Bread
Arugula Salad with Lemon and Shaved Parmesan
Products I recommend for this recipe:
I would love to hear what you think of this. Please let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to select a star rating. Thank you and enjoy!
Arancini (Rice Ball) Casserole
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ cup onion diced
- 1 medium carrot diced small
- 4 oz mushrooms diced
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- ¼ cup chicken stock
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Casserole
- ¼ lb lean ground beef
- ½ lb sweet Italian sausage casings removed
- ¼ cup onion diced
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 5 oz frozen peas
- 4 cups cooked white rice
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- fresh basil for topping
Instructions
Sauce
- To make the sauce – heat a sauce pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil and garlic and sautee for 2 minutes. Add the carrot, onion and mushrooms and sautee until the carrot is soft and the onion is translucent. Add the crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, salt and pepper and allow to simmer for 45 minutes. This is a great time to cook your rice if you have not already done so.
Casserole
- Preheat the oven to 400° and grease a large casserole dish.
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook the sausage, ground beef and onion. When the meat is browned, add in the peas and half of the homemade sauce. Allow to simmer on low for 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked rice, eggs, parmesan cheese and half of the remaining sauce.
- Spread half of the rice mixture in the bottom of the casserole dish. Spread the meat and pea mixture on top. Sprinkle half of the mozzarella cheese on next. Spread the other half of the rice mixture on top of the cheese. Pour the remaining sauce on next and then sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top of the sauce. Top with the remaining mozzarella.
- Baked in the preheated oven for approximately 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before eating.
Nutrition
If you like this recipe, you may also like my Easy Skillet Lasagna, Pizza Chicken Skillet, Rigatoni Bolognese or my Penne Alla Vodka.
