---
title: 'One of Italy’s Greatest Foods is Actually…French?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=5q38An74TyA'
video_id: '5q38An74TyA'
date: 2026-07-29
duration_sec: 770
---

# One of Italy’s Greatest Foods is Actually…French?

> Source: [One of Italy’s Greatest Foods is Actually…French?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5q38An74TyA)

## Summary

This video explores supplì al telefono, a classic Roman street food that has French origins dating back to the Napoleonic occupation. The host demonstrates the entire cooking process, from making a quick tomato sauce and risotto to forming, breading, and frying the rice balls. He also highlights key differences between supplì and Sicilian arancini, such as shape, color, and filling.

### Key Points

- **French Origin of Supplì** [00:05] — The word 'supplì' is French for 'surprise,' introduced during the Napoleonic occupation of Italy. The dish is derived from French rice croquettes, but Italians added mozzarella, creating the 'telephone wire' effect when pulled apart.
- **Differences Between Supplì and Arancini** [00:46] — Supplì is smaller, oblong, and cooked with tomato sauce (red), while arancini is round, yellow from saffron, and filled with bolognese. Supplì is a snack from Roman pizzerias, whereas arancini is a meal replacement.
- **Making the Tomato Sauce** [01:39] — Infuse olive oil with garlic and basil stems, then add tomato passata or puree and let it simmer while preparing the risotto.
- **Cooking the Risotto** [02:05] — Toast Arborio rice in butter and olive oil until nutty, then add stock and tomato sauce in batches. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is 3/4 cooked (al dente). Finish with butter and pecorino romano.
- **Chilling the Rice** [03:54] — Spread the cooked risotto on a sheet tray and chill, ideally overnight, to make it pliable for forming.
- **Forming and Breading** [05:46] — Wrap chilled risotto around dried mozzarella pieces, sealing completely. Use a two-stage breading: a batter of flour, egg, vodka, water, and salt, then breadcrumbs. Double-dip for insurance against cheese leakage.
- **Frying Methods** [09:54] — Fry in oil at 325°F for 5-6 minutes until deep golden brown, or air fry at 350°F for about 22 minutes after coating in oil. Air-fried version is less crunchy but closer to authentic Italian texture.

### Conclusion

Supplì al telefono is a delicious Roman snack with a surprising French heritage. The recipe is approachable for home cooks, and the air fryer offers a lighter alternative without sacrificing taste.

## Transcript

Rome's most famous and iconic street food, and think of it like the distant Roman cousin to the Sicilian arancini. And that would be a fast way to piss off a Roman. Surprisingly, it's actually more French than it is Italian. The word
supplì is French for surprise, and it comes from the Napoleonic occupation of Italy, which had an influence on Italian culture in the 19th century. Thought to be connected to the French rice croquette, Italians stuck a piece of
mozzarella in it, and the French were like, "Supplì!" Its true name, supplì al telefono, comes from the resemblance of a telephone wire, or what used to be one, when you pull it apart. That's where it gets the name from, and it's
the easier and more practical Italian rice ball to bring from Italy into your rice ball to bring from Italy into your home. This is supplì al telefono. And there are distinct differences between supplì and arancini. The first
being, rather than cooked and colored by saffron to be yellow, it's cooked with tomato sauce to become red. So, we need to prep a quick weekday sauce. So, I've its shell. I'm just going to smash them. Other differences between arancini and
supplì, the arancini's rounder, filled with bolognese and mozzarella. It's meant to be more of like a meal replacement. The supplì are smaller, oblong, meant to be more of a snack, and they were born out of like the pizzerias
of Rome, who sold pizza al taglio, which is just sheet pan pizza. So, when in Rome and you're grabbing your pizza, make sure you grab a supplì. So, first it with enough oil to coat the bottom, and then we're going to toss in the
basil stem and the garlic, and we're just going to give that a few minutes on the heat until the garlic starts to brown around the outside, infusing that oil with the garlic and the basil flavor. And then we're going to add in
some good quality tomato passata or puree. let this simmer while we start to make the risotto. Now, in a saucier or some
high-rimmed pan, we're going to add a few tablespoons of olive oil along with together and we're going to get that butter nice and melty and bubbly. Then we're going to add in about a cup of our Arborio rice. We want to coat every
grain of rice in that fat. You want to get them all toasted and you're looking to bring out a slightly nutty aroma from the rice. Then we're going to add in a few ladles of stock. And unlike normal risotto that cooks slowly with one ladle
of stock at a time, we can add a few ladles at a time along with two ladles of the weekday sauce. And that's going to bring out this nice red color in the rice. We're just going to simmer this in enough liquid to keep the rice covered
for about 20 minutes, adding more stock to keep the rice covered as needed, which is a slightly different than making normal risotto. We don't need to cook this super low and slow. We can stir occasionally and approach this
somewhere between cooking rice and making risotto. After about 20 minutes, I'm going to give it a taste. Remember, we're not looking for it to be fully cooked. We need it roughly 3/4 of the way cooked so that we don't overcook it
when we fry the suppli. So, as you approach super al dente and the end of the cooking of the rice, you add less stock so you don't ever have too much in there when the rice is perfectly cooked. And once the rice is nice and par
cooked, we're going to kill the heat. I'm going to toss in 2 to 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, stir that to melt that in, and then we're going to finish with a generous amount of pecorino romano or parmigiano or a mix of both,
but pecorino would be the appropriate cheese for this dish as it is from Rome. through the mix, you can sort of see that it holds. That's the right consistency. Now it's ready to be chilled. Now we got it at the right
consistency, we could just pour it into a sheet tray, spread it out. It's going to allow it to cool quicker.
make supplì in the morning. Only other thing we need is our mozzarella. And that I've just kind of been drying out in paper towel. So, I want to cut this so that we could just kind of stuff it, wrap risotto around it, and then it's,
mozzarella stick, a little Italian-American vibe to it. I'm going to make a cut straight down, maybe cut it into three. Then we can turn them it into three. Then we can turn them sideways.
some risotto, should be perfect. And since it's freshly made, I wanted to cut since it's freshly made, I wanted to cut them, them to further dry out. Place another towel on top, and then we'll just wrap
moisture-wicking, should just suck this all up. Now, I divided this into 2 days. video, but kind of been struggling physically outside of work and with work. Good news is my arm is much better. As you can see, I've got some
function back to it without grimacing in pain, but baby steps here. Do a little work today, do a little work tomorrow. Allows us that rice to sort of chill, tomorrow, and our mozz is going to be ready, real easy to throw together once
I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and store the sauce. We might use it to dip our supplì in. So, now it's the next day, and here we have our solidified You make it too wet, it kind of doesn't hold the same way, but this is super
pliable, it's going to be perfect. We've got our mozzarella here, much drier. Just had that towel wick it out overnight. By the way, what do you think out, it's kind of comfortable, maybe cut a little '90s, you know what I mean?
Don't have any merch at the moment to sell you. I had to put the kibosh on it me know down below what if you would want to rock one of these. So, now if approaching this almost like a Italian mozzarella stick. Then I'm just going to
take a spoon and then we can start to just wrap it around piece of mozzarella. And then to seal it, you just grab some more. And the idea is to completely seal the mozzarella into the risotto so that it
doesn't seep out when it melts. That looks perfect to me. Kind of using your palms to shape and to seal it. Almost like you would seal a burger patty. Just kind of pushing it in while wrapping the rice around it. And you just go through
and repeat with the rest of the rice. And you can make these smaller, you can make these bigger. Sort of up to you. It's a nice size.
Now we've got our breading. This is just plain bread crumbs filled up about 3/4 cups. Might need more actually. And then instead of a three-stage breading station, we're doing a two-stage with a batter and the breading. So, I'm going
to go in with, I don't know, maybe like a half a cup of flour, one egg. That was easy. About a quarter cup of vodka, quarter cup of water, salt. And let's whisk it and see the consistency. That's too thick, so we added a little bit more
more vodka. If you don't know, vodka evaporates quicker than water creating a to add a little bit of vodka into our batters. Still need to thin it out. Wow, my arm could do that. It doesn't hurt. Still iffy, guys. I don't know if we're
in the home stretch just yet. See how runny that is? That's more in line with crumbs. And then we can take one of our balls, run it through the batter, into the bread crumbs. And to ensure nice coating, go back into
back into the breading. And just like chicken, we're looking to make sure there's no wet spots. It's completely encased in the breading. And we just go ahead and repeat that. One time in the breading, back in the
back in the breading. When you're carefully making sure everything about it is perfect. Perfectly sealed, perfectly shaped, perfect end result. Now, could you get
away without double dipping? Probably. It's more of a insurance policy. More necessary for like a mozzarella stick to ensure that the cheese doesn't kind of bust out. Now, these are going to go in the fridge. I like to always refrigerate
things I'm about to fry so that batter and the breading can almost dry out and kind of get stuck to it. So, these are going to go in the fridge while we set up the stove. Now, while we will be frying our suppli, we're also going to
be air frying them to show you a couple ways of doing it thanks to our sponsor today, the Suvie Kitchen Robot. But, Suvie's more than an air fryer. It's a smart countertop oven and meal delivery service designed to be a convenient,
time-saving cooking solution, not just the meal kit. And while I use this mainly to cook my recipes, you can also choose from Suvie's over 50 chef-crafted meals. All you have to do to load up the meal is to tap the recipe card to the
appliance. The meal's pulled up on the Suvie machine, then you can press cook cook it. You can also throw the meal in there in the morning, and with its cool-to-cook technology, Suvie will safely keep it cool all day and begin to
automatically, and you don't even need to be home for it. Saves time, lets you home-cooked meals for people who might not have all the time in the world to cook for themselves or their family. And besides air fry, it's got 15 cook modes
including roast, broil, slow cook, steam. So, you get perfectly cooked meals, not soggy microwaved food. And the best part about it to me, Suvie means if you don't think it works for you, Suvie will make it right. So, if
in my description, take advantage of their 100-day risk-free trial. So, now they're nice and firm. That breading's going to stay nice and encrusted. Now, I said we're doing it two ways. So, I've got our Suvie kitchen robot on. I set it
the top zone to air fry. Set it for about 22 minutes cuz I like to let it First thing we want to do is get them coated really well in oil. Just got my oil spray. Just make sure they get really well coated. Then we can pop
really well coated. Then we can pop these into the Suvie. while those air fry, we can fill up a pot no more than halfway with some frying oil and get that up to a low frying temp. Normally, you're looking to
fry something about 350°, but that's usually for like a french fry. These are hefty balls. So, we need to consider the risk of the breading crisping up before the cheese melts. So, 325°
is our target temp, and that's what we're looking to maintain throughout the cook. So, in batches, no more than four at a time, we're going to gently add in our soupli and cook them for about 5 to 6 minutes until that breading gets
deeply golden brown. And we're going to just gently move them around constantly throughout the cook until the breading gets a deep golden brown. Then we're we're going to let them drain on a wire rack, and finish frying the rest.
give them a rotate, which I like to do more often in the air fryer to ensure even browning, and those are almost done. Give those a few more minutes. Now, our last batch of soupli should be finished. Get those out of the oil, and
you can hold these on the wire rack, and you can just drop them back in the oil for 30 seconds and reheat them whenever you're ready to serve. I mean, look how perfect that is. We're going to let these rest. We're going to check on our
air fried. Here are the air fryers. Slight blowout, but it's still crispy. It's crisp and soft. It's actually closer to the texture you would get it in Italy. It's never like super duper
crunchy when you get like an arancini or something in Italy. Oh my god. Okay, we got to let those chill. Can't eat these right away. I forgot.
Is this not a mozzarella stick or what? That's fun. from. A surprise that looks like a telephone cord. And that's a Roman suppli. A culinary delight, an icon that I guess we could
thank Napoleon for. This world is a wacky place. Forgot about the tomato tomato. Recipe for this is going to be down in the description. If you haven't down to that. Make sure you go check that out. That's all that I have today.
care of yourself. I'm going to take care of myself, and go feed yourself.