Divina Cucina

Your Best Friend in Italy

World Nutella Day- Nutella-filled Rice Fritters

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It’s that time of year!Carnevale is when Italy goes all out with sweets and my friends Sara from Ms Adventures in Italy and Michele from Bleeding Expresso created a monster fest! 
WORLD NUTELLA DAY
If you are crazy about Nutella- stop by on Monday to both their sites as they are doing a round-up of all the crazy bloggers that love Nutella! 

Italians put Nutella everywhere! It is the peanut butter of Italy. Personally I find it too sweet for me and more for a kids palate. Just recently an American mom decided to sue, as she discovered that Nutella contained bad fats! ha ha– WAKE UP! There are other chocolate and hazelnut spreads available made with more natural oils, but as with all things, balance is important. 
I am going to whip up my own Nutella, creating a hazelnut butter and then adding melted chocolate, some EVO and a pinch of sea salt.  That is my project later today.

I adore seeing what shows up with Nutella. At my local pastry shop, they filled the fabulous rice fritters with Nutella. just the right size and the not-so-sweet rice is a great balance for the chocolate. 

Another pastry shop makes the fried ravioli with nutella inside that I posted before.

The recipe below makes a ton of tiny fritters, make them small! They are better bite-size.

rice fritters— with nutella fillin

Here is my rice fritter recipe. The are usually only found now, Carneval Season and March 19th for St. Joseph’s day which is Father’s day in Italy.
Tuscan Rice Fritters
 2-1/2 cups short grain rice6 cups milk4 tablespoons sugarPeel of one lemon (wide strips)1 ounce liqueur (sherry, brandy, or amaretto)1 cup flour1 tablespoon baking flourPinch of salt6 eggs, separatedBring the rice to a slow boil in the milk with sugar and lemon peel. When the rice is cooked, it will have absorbed all the milk. Place the rice in large bowl, add the liqueur, egg yolks, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well and let cool. DO NOT REFRIGERATE. Whip the egg whites still stiff. Fold whites into the rice mixture. In a heavy pan, heat 3 inches of oil for frying. I prefer olive oil, but peanut, sunflower or other oil is fine. Drop the fritters by teaspoons into the hot oil. Fry quickly and remove when they are golden. Drain on paper towels and serve sprinkled with granulated sugar. They are best hot, but can also be served cold or reheated. I like to add raisins soaked in brandy to the mixture, or tiny pieces of candied orange peel. 


For extra flavor- you can pipe in Nutella or pastry cream when the rice fritters are cooled.


I wanted to try to make my own Nutella too as the store brand is just too sweet for me.


Here it is served my favorite way- bread and chocolate.




I simply pureed 100 grams of toasted and peeled hazelnuts with my Braun immersion blender until it was hazelnut “butter”. I added some extra virgin olive oil to lighten the mixture and stirred in 100 grams of melted bittersweet chocolate. ( I melted the chocolate in 2 tbs of milk). It is a much thicker spread and not so sweet. Enjoy!



Get ready for next year and experiment with chocolate and hazelnut- it is a fabulous combination!

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