A Rissole is a “patty” made from any minced ingredients mixed with seasoning and binder. The mixture is then pressed together into shapes, then coated and fried. They are made in many types of cooking, such as Turkish, Estonian, British, Italian, Australian, etc.
The main ingredients might be fish, seafood, meat, nuts, lentils, cheese, or mushrooms. The binder is usually egg and flour. The coating is usually flour or bread crumbs.
The shapes can be balls, flattened cakes, or egg-shaped. Mrs Beaton had a recipe for Potato Risoles that called for them to be rolled into small balls. In Australia, almost always made round. Generally, they are made thicker than hamburger patties.
In Australia, butchers sell ready-made meat ones shaped as patties, and Australians pay fry or bbq them at home.
In Rome, they make Rissoles out of rice, called “Suppli di riso alla romana.” A rissoto is made with dried mushrooms in it, and set aside to cool while a tomato sauce is made with tomatoes, onion, chicken livers, and a small amount of chopped veal and proscuitto. They’re assembled by pressing out a small amount of rice in your hand, putting a small cube of mozzarella cheese in the centre along with a small amount of the tomato sauce, then the rice is folded around it all to enclose it and moulded in the shape of an egg, then the “egg” is dipped in beaten egg, roled in dried breadcrumbs, then deep fried in olive or vegetable oil until golden brown.
Cooking Tips
Served as a main course, you need to allow 2 to 3 to 4 depending on appetite, along with potato and veg, or fancier ones can be made to be used as appetizers.
Rissoles sometimes crack open when frying — to help prevent this, people sometimes dip them in cold water before rolling them in their coating.
Language Notes
The word “Rissoles” comes from the French verb “rissoler”, meaning “to brown”, or possibly ultimately from the Latin adjective “russeolus”, meaning “reddish-brown.”