Supplì is the best food I ate in Rome, and “Roman Holiday” may just be my favorite movie that is set in Italy, so this Honeymoon in Italy pairing came pretty easy.

Our supplì is vegan and gluten-free, making 8 fried rice balls. You can decide if that’s 8 “servings” or 4 or 1.

Ingredients
0.25 cups garlic-infused olive oil
1 cup arborio rice
4 cups vegetable broth
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
3 ounces vegan mozzarella (in block or snack sticks/circles)
0.67 cups gluten-free bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dried oregano
large bottle of canola oil

Instructions
Heat your garlic-infused olive oil in a pot. Add the dry rice and mix it in with the hot oil so it becomes translucent.

Pour in 1 cup of vegetable broth. Keep stirring over medium high heat until the liquid is absorbed, then add half a cup of the broth and repeat until all of the broth is gradually absorbed into the rice, making a very basic risotto.

Let the risotto cool to room temperature.

While you’re waiting for that, prepare everything else.

Mix the basil into the tomato paste.

In a flat bowl that will work for dredging, mix the bread crumbs and oregano together.

Slice your vegan mozzarella block into small rectangles that are about an inch long.

Once your risotto has cooled, flatten some out in your hand and put about 2 teaspoons of the basil tomato paste on top, followed by one piece of the cheese.

Ball up the risotto in your hand so none of the tomato sauce nor the cheese is exposed.

The balls should be more oval-shaped, not circles.

Roll the ball through the bread crumbs, coating the entire thing.

Place on parchment paper.

Repeat the supplì-forming steps until you run out of one of the ingredients. You should have roughly 8 balls.

In a pan deep enough to safely have at least 2 inches of oil come to a boil, add that much oil and turn the burner on to medium high heat.

Let it get hot before dropping the supplì in to fry. Depending on how big your pot is, you should only fry 2-4 supplì at a time.

The supplì should fry in the hot oil for at least 5 minutes. You should leave it alone for that long before poking your tongs around to check the color.

If it’s turned a darker brown, it should be ready to come out and sit on a paper-towel lined plate for blotting.

Once they’ve all been fried, you can serve them on their own or with a dipping sauce like marinara. I prefer them on their own.

Enjoy with “Roman Holiday!”

The Easy Route
One step to make this easier would be to find a premade vegan risotto instead of making one from scratch.

If you have a restaurant or store near you that sells vegan, gluten-free supplì, please drop the name in the comments!

The Pairing
I have loved “Roman Holiday” since I was a teenager, so seeing some of the places featured in the film 20 years later on our honeymoon was pretty dang cool.

The film follows a princess on the run (Audrey Hepburn) and an intrepid reporter (Gregory Peck) who find themselves thrown together.

The plot of course involves heightened stakes, but what I love most about the movie is how natural it seems, getting lost in the details of enjoying gelato or savoring the rare moments we get in life when we’re free from the obligations we have.

The performances of Hepburn and Peck have a lot to do with making this feeling come naturally, and their chemistry is off the charts.

Eddie Albert is equally great as the third wheel, a photographer who works with Peck.

There is also just a sliver of a thriller aspect to the film, with Peck’s reporter and Hepburn’s princess not coming clean to each other about who they really are.

All of these components combine to make the movie a joyful way to spend a couple hours.

If you decide to make supplì and/or watch “Roman Holiday,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes

This is part two of our five-part Honeymoon in Italy series. The others:
Part 1: “Brideshead Revisited” + Aperol Spritz
Part 3: “Searching for Italy” + Potato Quinoa Pizza
Part 4 coming August 17
Part 5 coming August 24