Traditional Roman Holiday #2 – Supplì al Telefono

We already know that if fried, everything is good. However, supplì raise the bar immensely, making it our first priority every time we land in Rome. And now, we’ve managed to figure out a recipe to enjoy them at home.

For this recipe, we went for a beef and mushroom sauce, but we’ll talk later about some of the alternatives you can use (such as saffron or bolognese sauce).

Have it as a snack, a quick bite for lunch, or just eat four and call it dinner. No rules; no judgments.

The recipe below is for approximately 25 supplì – you can eat them all or freeze them before frying to have them ready to go next time you’re craving some. Just add an extra 2-3 minutes cooking time, no need to defrost.

Supplì al Telefono

Small fried rice balls filled with a rich tomato and meat sauce and hot, racy mozzarella

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Resting Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 5 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Italian

Servings 25 supplì

Equipment

• Food Processor OR grater
• Cleaver (if mincing the beef by hand)
• Food Thermometer

Ingredients

  

For the Sauce

• 1/2 small onion
• 1/2 stack celery
• 1 small carrot
• 1 clove garlic
• 250 gr diced beef or mince (8.8oz)
• 2 dried mushrooms
• 1/3 glass dry white wine
• 400 gr tomato sauce (8oz)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• pepper

For the Filling

• 500 gr risotto (arborio/carnaroli) rice (17.6oz)
• 250 gr mozzarella (8oz)
• 1.5-2 l beef broth (6 -8 cups)
• 80 gr Parmesan cheese

For the Coating & Frying

• 2 eggs
• breadcrumbs
• 500 ml vegetable oil

Instructions

 

Sauce Prep

• Let's start by preparing the soffritto for our sauce. Cut roughly the celery, carrot, onion and garlic and put it in a food processor for a few seconds. If you don't have one, you can use a grater for the celery and carrot and just diced garlic and onion very finely. Heat the olive oil in a pot while you do that, making sure that the flame is not very high or it'll burn. Add it to the pot and let it soften for approximately 10 minutes or until the onion gets translucent.
• If you're using mince, just sit and wait for the soffritto to be soft. If you're using diced beef and have a cleaver, start mincing it and make sure that there are no chunks. Once it's minced and the soffritto has softened, add it to the pot with the minced dried mushrooms and let it brown.
• Once it's browned (10-15 minutes roughly), add the half glass of dry white wine and let it evaporate completely. Then add the 500 gr of tomato sauce. Mix all together, cover, and let it cook for 2 hours on a very low flame. Stir occasionally and make sure that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.

Filling Prep

• Let's start by cutting the mozzarella into 1-1.5 cm bites and let it drain in a strainer. This will prevent the suppli to get soggy later on. Just leave it on the side, we'll come back to it later.
• Start preparing the beef broth so that when we need it it's going to be nice and hot. In the meantime, grab a pan and toast the 500gr of risotto rice for 5 minutes. Once toasted, add to the pot where you're cooking the sauce.
• Add 1.5 cups (325 ml) of beef broth to the pot with the rice and the sauce and mix all together. Let it absorb completely before adding another cup. Add another one, let it absorb, and so on. Cook the rice according to the cooking instructions (should be around 15-20 minutes). The rice should be simmering at all times. Make sure that there is not too much broth or that the rice is not too dry – you don't necessarily have to use all the broth! – and when it's cooked, turn the flame off and add the 80gr of Parmesan. Mix it well.
• Take a big sheet of baking paper and pour the rice over it to cool down completely – try and spread it as thins as possible, so that it cools down faster. Alternatively, you can use silicone mats or just pour it over the counters, just make sure to not use tin foil as it'll keep the heat in.

Coating & Frying

• Once the rice has cooled down completely, take a bit and shape it as a cylinder. Each suppli should be approximately 8 cm long and 3 cm wide. Once you have them shaped, take one bit of mozzarella and push it inside the suppli. Shape it back to the cylindrical form, making sure that the rice is holding tightly together. This will prevent the suppli to fall apart when you fry it.
• Prepare two bowls, one with two beaten eggs and one with at least 150-200gr of breadcrumbs (you might need more, or less, there's no exact amount so keep it next to you).
• Take your first suppli, roll it in the beaten eggs and then roll it in the breadcrumbs. It must be fully covered. Repeat the process for all of them.
• Heat up the vegetable oil in a wok or pot of preference for frying. Once the oil gets to 180° Celsius (or 350° Fahrenheit), add the suppli carefully. You can fry how many you have space for, but make sure to not overcrowd the wok/pot. Take them out when the coating gets nice and golden.

Keyword Finger Food, Fried Food, Street Food, Traditional Roman

While you wait for the rice to cool down…

It does take a while to make supplì but the end result is so good that it makes it all worth it. Considering that most of the time for this recipe is just waiting for either the sauce to cook or the rice to cool down, the best thing to do is to make big batches of supplì that you can just freeze.

They make the perfect appetiser and are perfect to serve to friends. Although they’re at their best when they’re freshly fried, you can eat them cold and they’re still gonna be amazing.

Let’s Talk About Fillings

So, do you necessarily have to stick with this filling for your supplì? For the original one, yes, but there are plenty of alternatives out there you can use.

You can simply use some bolognese sauce and forget about the mushrooms. Or even use the amatriciana sauce we cooked here and get some bits of that lovely guanciale as a merry surprise. Or, if you’re not in the mood for a tomato-base sauce, go ahead and try a saffron or mushroom filling.

Honestly, you can just use whatever leftover risotto you have and use that and save a lot of time. Just let it cool down, give it that supplì shape, pop some mozzarella and drop it into piping hot oil.

Why supplì al telefono

Supplì al telefono literally translates to supplì on the phone – this is because when you break them in half, you should get a nice, racy line of hot mozzarella running between the two ends. Every mozzarella lover out there will be delighted from the first bite.