With a winning collection of recipes from up and down the Italian peninsula, ‘The Top One Hundred Italian Rice Dishes’ is likely to earn its place as a kitchen workhorse.
By: Pat Tanner
For the last 10 years one of the workhorse cookbooks in my kitchen has been Diane Seed’s "The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces." Apparently I’m not alone in my admiration for this small but eminently useful book: over 1 million copies have been sold since it was first published in 1987.
The latest offering from Ms. Seed, who runs a cooking school in Rome, is "The Top One Hundred Italian Rice Dishes" (Ten Speed Press, $14.95). With a winning collection of risottos, baked rice dishes, rice salads and rice soups from up and down the Italian peninsula, it looks highly likely to earn its place alongside its successful older sibling.
Fully half the recipes are devoted to risotto, the popular creamy rice dish. These range from classics such as risotto Milanese, to the exotic and extravagant, like rose petal risotto and one with robiola cheese and black truffles, to those that trendy Italians are making, like the smoked salmon risotto recipe which follows.
The remainder of the book’s recipes showcase the other wonderful uses Italians have put their rices to, including minestre medium-bodied soups in this case pairing rice with the appealing flavors of asparagus, chicken, sausage, even scorpion fish, to name a few.
Among the baked rice dishes is Sicilian Christmas timballo, an extravaganza that includes both chicken and meatballs. Fried rice is featured in dishes like arancine rice balls stuffed with a mixture of ground veal, peas, cheese and tomato sauce.
The book includes few desserts, but both the rice and orange soufflé and the crespelle, sweet rice fritters, are winners. In all recipes Ms. Seed employs one of the three leading varieties of Italian rices: Carnaroli, Vialone Nano and Arborio. She lists them in order of preference, based on which yields the desired texture and/or which is authentic to the region of the recipe’s origin.
Italy’s Po River valley is ideal for rice growing, Ms. Seed informs us in her introduction. Carnaroli is most popular in the Piedmont and Lombard regions, while Vialone Nano is the preferred in the area of Mantua, Verona and Venice.
For each recipe the author includes interesting, helpful or amusing introductions, like this one for the Leek and Rice Minestra: "This recipe was a firm local favorite [in Asti, in the Piedmont] in the Middle Ages, when it was believed that leeks cleansed the blood."
"The Top One Hundred Italian Rice Dishes" is filled with charming hand-painted illustrations, as is its pasta sauce predecessor. Unfortunately, in my kitchen, if the first book is any indication, these are destined to become "enhanced" with myriad stains from many years of hard duty.
"The Top One Hundred Italian Rice Dishes," by Diane Seed (Ten Speed Press, 2000)
This "new" recipe is very popular with home cooks who want to make something easy but special. Fish stock is too strong for this dish, so it is better to use vegetable stock.
2 ounces (½ stick) butter
4 ounces sliced smoked salmon, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 2/3 cups (10.5 ounces) Vialone Nano rice (or Carnaroli or Arborio)
½ cup dry white wine
4 cups vegetable stock, heated to a simmer
Salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley or dill
1. Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the salmon. Put to one side.
2. Heat the oil in another pan and gently cook the onion until soft. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes before adding the wine. When the wine has evaporated start adding the simmering stock a ladle at a time, waiting for the rice to absorb the liquid before stirring in more.
3. When the rice is cooked, after about 15 to 20 minutes, stir in the melted butter and smoked salmon mixture, checking the seasoning. Let the risotto rest for two minutes, then garnish with fresh parsley or dill.
Serves 4
"The Top One Hundred Italian Rice Dishes," by Diane Seed (Ten Speed Press, 2000)
4 ounces (1 stick) butter
10 ounces leeks, cleaned and sliced into rings
1 thin slice bacon, chopped (optional)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
5 ounces potatoes, peeled and chopped
6 cups boiling water
Salt and black pepper
1 2/3 cups Carnaroli rice (or Vialone Nano or Arborio)
Nutmeg for grating
3 ounces Gruyere, diced
3 ounces fontina cheese, diced
1. Melt half the butter in a large pan and add half the leeks together with the chopped bacon, garlic and bay leaf. Cover and stew over a low heat for 20 minutes.
2. Add the remaining leeks, the potato and the boiling water. Simmer for 15 minutes, season to taste and stir in the rice. Grate in a little nutmeg.
3. When the rice is cooked, mash the potatoes with a wooden spoon and stir in the diced cheeses and the remaining butter. Check seasoning before serving.
Serves 4
Adapted from "The Top One Hundred Italian Rice Dishes," by Diane Seed (Ten Speed Press, 2000)
It is unusual to find monks inventing desserts, but this recipe comes from the Benedictine monastery in Catania. The fritters are traditionally eaten on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19. Note that the recipe calls for fresh yeast, not dry yeast.
9 ounces (scant 1½ cups) Arborio rice (or Carnaroli or Vialone Nano)
9 ounces (1 generous cup) milk
5 ounces fresh ricotta cheese
¾ cup all-purpose flour
Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
¼ ounce fresh yeast
Vegetable oil for deep-frying (not olive oil)
1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons honey, preferably orange or lemon flower
1. Bring the rice to a boil in a pan with the milk and an equal quantity of water. Cook gently, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft. This will take about 20 minutes. Spread out on a plate, cover and leave for several hours, preferably overnight.
2. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the ricotta, flour, citrus zest and the yeast dissolved in a little warm water. Cover and leave for 1 hour.
3. When ready to serve shape the mixture into pieces about 6-inches long, ¾ inch wide, and ¾-inch high. Deep-fry the fritters in at least two inches of hot oil (350 degrees) in batches. Dust with sifted confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon. Serve at once with the honey spooned on top.
Serves 4.