RICE DISHES

Frog risotto

Ingredients for 4 people:
 240 g Vialone Nano rice, 400 g cleaned frogs, 300 g chopped onion, 100 g ripe tomatoes, 100 r extra virgin olive oil and 50 g sunflower oil, 1 glass white wine, 1 spoonful chopped watercress, salt and pepper, spices and as much chicken stock as required. 

In a frying pan, sauté 200 g of chopped onion in the olive oil. Add the frogs, salt, pepper and spices and cook for about 15 minutes. When they are cooked, remove the frogs, remove the bones and replace them in the pan adding the diced ripe tomatoes. Cook for another 6-7 minutes.At the same time, make the risotto, sautéing the rest of the onion until golden with the sunflower oil and butter. Stir the rice for a while, add the white wine and, when it has evaporated, add enough chicken stock to cover the rice. When the rice is cooked al dente, add the frogs with their sauce and cook for a few more minutes. Add the water-cress and a few knobs of butter. Mix well and serve.

Ingredients for 4 people:
 360 g Ribe rice, 500 g small green crabs, 2 edible crabs weighing about 300 g each, 1 small glass of Armagnac, 3 litre white wine, 1 leek, 3 carrots, 2 sticks of celery, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 sprigs of fresh thyme, 4 spoonfuls olive oil, 2 spoonfuls chopped parsley.

Clean and finely chop the vegetables, and sauté in a large pan in 2 spoonfuls of oil. Pour in the brandy and then the white wine. After two minutes add 3 litres of water. When it comes to the boil, pour in the small crabs which must previously be cleaned, and boil for 5 minutes. Leave aside 8 of the crabs. Everything else must be squashed and pressed through a sieve. Reduce the stock to half a litre of liquid. Remove the edible parts of the remaining crabs, pass them through a sieve and stuff the shells which, later, with the claws, will be used to decorate the dish. Set aside the meat of the large crabs and cook the rice in the crab stock. When the risotto is perfectly cooked, add the crabmeat, the chopped parsley and two spoonfuls of olive oil. Decorate and serve very hot.

 Ingredients for 4 people: 
1 kg lamon beans, 100 g smoked bacon, 1 litre Barbera, salt, pepper, rosemary, sage, onion and garlic, 300 g Argo or Vialone Nano rice, 11 litres stock.

Boil the beans. Sauté the finely chopped onion with the bacon cut into thin strips and the finely chopped herbs, pour in the red wine and the cooked beans. Sauté the rice in a little butter in a pan with a little oil. Pour in the rest of the red wine (Barbera), and finish cooking the rice using the stock. Add the beans and bacon, a good sprinkling of Parmesan and 50 g of butter. Mix well and add plenty of pepper.

Ingredients for 4 people: 
300 g parboiled rice, 300 g Brussels sprouts, 4 sprigs fresh tarragon, 1 small leek, 100 g newly pressed olive oil, salt, 1 litre meat stock.

Cut off the outer leaves of the sprouts, or use half of the sprouts and chop and blend them together with the leek and the oil to make a fairly thick sauce. Put into a pan and place over the heat. As soon as it starts to bubble, add the whole sprouts and a little hot stock. After it has cooked for 5 minutes, add the rice and as much stock again as the quantity already in the pot. Stir and cook over a medium heat for 20- 21 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the chopped tarragon. Mix and serve garnishing each portion with a sprig of tarragon.We recommend NOT using any kind of cheese. Any leftover risotto is excellent heated up quickly in a little oil.

Ingredients for 4 people: 
200 g Arborio rice, 1 litre meat stock, 60 g grated Parmesan, 1 onion, 70 g butter, 1 glass dry white wine, 300 g porcini mushrooms, 100 g goose salami, 1 shallot, chopped parsley.

Sauté the chopped onion in 20 g of butter until golden. Add the rice and 100 g of the porcini mushrooms cut into slices. Stir for a few minutes, then add the white wine. Continue to cook, adding the stock a little at a time, until the rice is cooked. Remove from the heat and add the rest f the butter, the Parmesan and the parsley. Line 4 moulds with the sliced goose salami, fill with the risotto and place in a hot oven for a few minutes. Remove each savarin from its mould and place in the centre of each dish. Sauté the remaining mushrooms with a knob of butter, the chopped shallot and a little white wine and use to surround each savarin.

Ingredients for 4 people:
200 g of Roma rice, 1 spoon of chopped nuts, 4 shallots tips of stinging-nettles, 4 spoons of extra virgin salt and pepper, olive oil salted vegetable broth fla, 100 g of Parmesan voured with fresh herbs, cheese, 1 glass of dry Moscato, 24 large snails, 2 tomatoes

Preparation
Chop 2 shallots and sauté in 2 spoons of olive oil, add the rice. Pour in the glass of wine and let evaporate; continue to cook the rice adding broth and then the grated Parme san cheese. Remove some minutes before the end of the cooking time and put the risotto into individual, well buttered moulds and keep warm. Prepare the ragà by cooking the other 2 shallots sliced in oil, adding the snails (previously boiled and chopped) and then sautéing well. Add the tomatoe pulp (without seeds) and after 2 minutes the blanched stinging-nettle tips. Remove from heat and add the nuts.
Invert the moulds of risotto onto hot plates, and cover with the ragù.

Ingredients for 4 people: 
300 g Lido rice, 11 litres milk, 2 spoonfuls grated Parmesan, salt as required.

Heat half the milk and bring to the boil. As soon as it begins to boil, add the rice. Stirring continuously, add the rest of the milk a little at a time until the rice is cooked. Add the salt and the grated Parmesan. This dish may be eaten hot, or left to cool for a while until a skin forms over the top.

Ingredients for 4 persons:
300 g of Baldo rice, 2 small courgettes, 8 pumpkin flowers, 120 g of butter, 1 dessertspoon of grated, Parmesan cheese, 1 shallot, 1 glass of wine, 1/2 g saffron, salt and pepper, broth

Chop the shallot and sauté in 20 gr. of butter, add the courgettes cut into small cubes, the rice and brown. Add the wine and allow to evaporate, continue cooking and adding the broth.
When half cooked add the saffron and the well-cleaned pumkin flowers. When cooked cheek for salt, well pepper and after a few minutes mix in the remaining butter and the cheese.

Ingredients for 4 people: 
200 g Balilla rice, 200 g green cabbage, 8 pork spare ribs 4 cm thick, 1 spoonful tomato sauce, 1 onion, half a spoonful of lard, chopped and worked into a paste, half a spoonful chopped parsley, 50 g raspadura or 4 spoonfuls grated Parmesan. 

Make enough stock for 4 people by cooking the spare ribs, onion, the tomato sauce and the lard in salted water.When the spare ribs are cooked, add the cabbage torn into pieces and the rice. When the rice is cooked, serve the soup sprinkled with the chopped parsley and the "raspadura" or grated Parmesan. "Raspadura" is widely used around the town of Lodi, in the north of Italy, and is made with by grating immature Grana Padano cheese into shavings.

Ingredients for 4 people: 
300 g rice, 100 g bacon, 1 spoonful saffron (2 small packets), 1 onion, cream, butter, grated Parmesan cheese.

Finely chop the onion and bacon, then sauté in a pan in a spoonful of oil. Then add the rice and the saffron and cover with hot stock. When the rice is nearly cooked, remove from the heat and add a knob of butter and a few spoonfuls of grated Parmesan.

 Ingredients for 4 people: 
300 g rice, 150 g cultivated strawberries, 2 spoonfuls dry vodka, cream, butter, 1 onion.

Chop the onion and bacon very finely, and sauté until golden in 2 spoonfuls of oil. Add the rice and half the cleaned strawberries. Add the vodka and allow to evaporate, then add the hot stock. When the rice is nearly cooked, remove from the heat, add the remaining chopped strawberries, together with a knob of butter and a few spoonfuls of single cream.

Ingedients for 4 people: 
400 g Carnaroli rice, 150 g lean bacon cut thick, 80 g butter, 80 g grated Parmesan, 1 onion, 1 glass single cream, about 1 litre stock, nutmeg, salt.

Cut the bacon into thin strips and sauté in a frying pan with about 100 g of butter until golden. Remove the bacon to a plate. Finely chop the onion, pour into the same pan and cook over a low heat. Add the rice, season with a pinch of nutmeg and mix well. Cook the risotto, adding the cream a little at a time, allow the liquid to evaporate and turn off the heat. Add the remaining butter and the strips of fried bacon. Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.

Ingredients for 4 people: 
400 g Ribe rice, about 1 litre stock, 1 cup of Borlotti beans, 50 g bacon, 1 tin of peeled tomatoes, 1 glass red wine, 1 spoonful melted butter, onion, salt and pepper.

Boil the beans gently for about an hour and a half in a pan of salted water and drain. In another pan, sauté the chopped onion and the diced bacon in half the butter. Bring the stock to the boil. Add the rice to the fried onion and bacon and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the wine and allow to evaporate. Add the peeled tomatoes and the beans, and the stock, a little at a time. When the rice is half cooked, add the beans. Cook the rice for less than 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, remove from the heat and add the rest of the butter.

Ingredients for 4 people:
400 g Baldo rice, 70 g butter, 1 onion, 1 glass white wine, spoonfuls of grated Parmesan, about 11 litres stock, 1 small packet saffron, pepper.

Finely chop the onion and fry gently in 50 g of butter. Ad the rice and mix well. Add the wine and allow to evaporate. Add the stock, which should be kept on the boil, a little at a time. Allow to cook for 18-20 minutes. When the rice is half cooked, add the saffron mixed with a little stock. Remove the pan from the heat, add the grated Parmesan and the rest of the butter. Season with pepper and cover with a lid. Allow to rest for a couple of minutes. Mix well and serve.

350 g Roma rice, 500 g asparagus, 50 lard, 1 small onion, 1 clove of garlic, 1 bunch of parsley, 100 g Gruyere or similar cheese, oil, salt.

Clean the asparagus, removing the tough part of the stalk, and cook in salted water. Drain when it is cooked al dente and cut away the white part. (Retain the asparagus water).Chop the onion, garlic and parsley and sauté gently with two spoonfuls of oil. Add the rice and mix well. Add the asparagus stock a little at a time, stirring constantly for 18-20 minutes. A few minutes before removing the risotto from the heat, add the asparagus tips and the cheese cut into small cubes.Pour into a dish and serve.

Ingredients for 4 people: 
350 Arborio rice, 1 kg mussels, 80 g butter, 3 cloves garlic, 1 small piece of chopped onion, 1 litre fish stock, 2 spoonfuls oil, salt and pepper.

Scrub the mussels well and wash several times in running water. Place in a large pan, add the oil and a squashed clove of garlic and cook over a high flame until the shells are completely open. Remove the mussels from their shells and set aside in a bowl. Filter the liquid from the mussels and put on one side. Sauté the remaining cloves of garlic and the onion in 50 g of butter.Remove the garlic, add the rice and allow to absorb the flavour.Add the liquid from the mussels, mix and cook for approximately 16 to 18 minutes, adding the boiling mussel stock a little at a time.Two minutes before removing it form the heat, season with salt and pepper. Add the mussels and the remaining butter to finish.

Chop and boil all the vegetables for 1 hour.
Finely chop the lard, shallots and salame and sauté them in butter in a spacious pan, then add the rice and wine, cook by adding the minestrone.
Remove from heat, leave to stand for 5 minutes, pepper and serve.

Time taken: 25 minutes
Ingredients for 4 people:
350 g rice, 70 g butter, 75 g, mild gorgonzola, 75 g mature gorgonzola, 3 litre cream, 1 glass dry white wine, stock, salt and pepper.

Chop the onion very finely and sauté over a low heat in 50 g of butter, ensuring that it does not change colour. Pour the rice into the pan, together with the white wine and allow to reduce. Season with salt and pepper and, stirring constantly, add the stock a little at a time. When the rice is half cooked, add the cream and the two kinds of gorgonzola cut into cubes.When the rice is cooked al dente and ready to be served, add the remaining butter.

Time taken: 30 minutes
Ingredients for 4 people:
400 g long-grained rice, salt, 1 spoonful oil.

Run some water into a pan and add a little salt. Wet the rice and put in a colander, or in the top of a steamer. The rice must be completely covered by the water. As soon as it starts to boil, raise the top of the steamer (or colander) and fix to the edge of the pan. Cover with a lid and continue cooking for about ten minutes. Add a spoonful of oil. This method of cooking rice is suited to various stews and meats with sauces.