Cucina DiBella

Risi e Bisi

The Veneto region of Italy is mostly known for its seafood, but it is home to some other great recipes as well that you don't want to miss. Many of these involve rice, which is often used more frequently than pasta in the northern regions of Italy. One of the quintessential recipes from Veneto is Risi e Bisi, or Rice and Peas. The recipe is a simple variation of a basic risotto. Its simplicity is part of what has made Risi e Bisi a staple for many Italian parents and a first meal for many Italian kids. Since my son just started eating solid foods I will have to keep this meal in mind for when he's a ready for it!

Risi e Bisi

Adapted from Rachael Ray

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 a yellow onion, diced

1 cup arborio rice

4 cups chicken stock

3/4 cup peas

Procedure:

1. In a pot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and onions and cook until tender, about 3 minutes.
2. Add the risotto and allow to toast lightly.  Once toasted, begin to add the broth 1 cup at a time.  Stir frequently to avoid the rice sticking to the pot.  Continue until the rice is cooked to al dente.
3. Add the peas and allow them to warm through.  Serve the risotto immediately.

Ideas for modifications:This recipe is sometimes served almost as a soup.  To take this route, simply add more stock than what is required above.  For some added flavor, pancetta can also be added.  To save a little time, you can use frozen peas and add them directly to the risotto.  They will thaw in the rice in no time!

Ryan's rating of Risi e Bisi - 4.  Not bad since peas are far from his favorite vegetable!

1 - Awful. If you make this again I'll shove a fork in my eye.

2 - Meh. It's not my favorite, but I won't threaten self-harm if it shows up again.

3 - Good. I wouldn't feel forced to order a pizza behind your back.

4 - Great! I will fight you for the leftovers.

5 - Love it! Make it again tomorrow. Or immediately and I will bathe in it.

Tiramisu

Now, what I'm about to post may be controversial to some.  The assertion that Tiramisu, one of the most beloved and well known desserts from all of Italy, is from the Veneto region is enough to offend some, I'm sure.  There is a heated battle going on between Venice and Tuscany over which region can lay claim to this delicious dessert.  However, in all of the research that I did, it seemed that the majority of the information I came across pointed to Tiramisu coming from Venice. So, I'm going with that.

Tiramisu really isn't a tough dessert to make, though its delicate flavors made it an intimidating challenge to me.  Nevertheless, I gave it my best shot, and managed to come out with a product that was actually pretty delicious! I used amaretto liquor in my recipe, but you could also use a dark rum or even kahlua.  Enjoy!

 

 

Tiramisu

Adapted from Food Network

-Serves 8-

Ingredients:

*6 egg yolks

4 tablespoons sugar

16 ounces mascarponse cheese

1 1/2 cups strong espresso, cooled

2 teaspoons amaretto liquor

24 Italian ladyfingers

Cocoa powder for garnish

Process:

1. Put the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat about 5 minutes.
2. Add mascarpone cheese and beat until smooth.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of espresso and mix until thoroughly combined.
4. In a separate, shallow dish, mix the remaining espresso and the amaretto.  Dip each ladyfinger into the espresso mixture on each side.  Dip into the espresso for only a couple of seconds to avoid over-soaking the ladyfingers.  Place the ladyfingers in a single layer in a 8 1/2" by 11" pan.  You may need to break some of the ladyfingers in half to get them to fit well.
5. Spread half of the mascarpone mixture evenly over the ladyfingers.  Add another layer of ladyfingers, and then top with the remaining mascarpone.
6. Cover with plastic and chill for at least 1 hour.  Before serving, sprinkle with cocoa powder to garnish.

*Be aware that this recipe uses raw egg yolks.

Ryan's rating of Tiramisu - 5.  Wow, the food of Veneto really was a hit with him!

Chicken Treviso Style

Sorry for the delay, but here are the long lost posts from the Veneto region.  I realized that up until now, I haven't done any recipes using chicken.  That is part of my reasoning for choosing the recipe for Chicken Treviso Style.  My other reason was because in addition to having an abundance of seafood in its coastal cities, Veneto also has a very fertile countryside.  The cities found inland are rich in vegetables and game.  Chicken Treviso Style, or Polastro in Tecia is a dish that highlights both of these assets.  Like many traditional Italian dishes, the cook time on this dish is on the longer side (about an hour and a half).  However, other than a little chopping, there is little prep time in this dish.  While this seems to be a fairly straightforward dish in terms of flavor and ingredients, the addition of only a small amount of clove and cinnamon permeate the entire dish and give it a very earthy taste.  Like the porkchops with blueberry sauce, it doesn't seem like cinnamon should work with this chicken dish.  Once you taste it though, you realize that it really does work despite not making sense.  Serve this with some pasta, polenta, or roasted potatoes and you are good to go!

Chicken Treviso Style

Adapted from Food Network

-Serves 4-

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise to produce 4 pieces

1 small onion, chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 cloves, crushed

1 pinch cinnamon

10 ounces canned crushed tomatoes

1/3 pound button mushrooms

Process:

1. Heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat in a medium skillet.  Add the chicken and cook until a light golden brown.  Remove the chicken and set aside.
2. Add the onion, carrot, and celery to the skillet.  Cook over medium-high heat until the vegetables are soft, about 7-10 minutes.
3. Return the chicken to the pan.  Pour in the wine and add the cloves and cinnamon.  Add the tomatoes and stir.  Cook over medium heat about 15 minutes.
4. Stir in the mushrooms.  Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook 30-40 minutes.

Ryan's rating of Chicken Treviso Style - 5

Pasta e Fagioli

One of the popular choices for a first course, or primo, in Italy that I haven't hit on yet is soup.  That all changed last night when I made a classic soup dish from Veneto, Pasta e Fagioli.  Far from a light soup, this dish, though not boasting any real thickness in its broth, exudes heartiness in its main ingredients of beans, pasta, and pancetta.  Filling enough to really be a full meal if you wanted it to, this dish is also something that can be thrown together surprisingly quickly.  Last night when I made this I had an hour from the time I got home to the time we had to run out the door again to cook, eat dinner, and get ready to go out.  Somehow I managed to, in that small window of time, produce a delicious soup dinner (with Ryan's help of course)!

Pasta e Fagioli

Adapted from Chow

-Serves 4-

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cannellini beans (about 1 can)

2 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 small yellow onion, chopped

3 strips bacon, cut into small pieces OR 3 ounces pancetta

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried Rosemary

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

4 tablespoons tomato paste

4 cups chicken broth

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1 cup dried pasta such as macaroni or ditalini

Salt and pepper to taste

2 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano, grated

Process:

1. Put 1/2 cup of the cannellini beans and the water in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Set aside.
2. Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and bacon or pancetta and cook about 3-4 minutes or until the onions are soft and translucent.
3. Add the garlic, rosemary, and thyme and cook about 1 minute.
4. Stir in the tomato paste and cook about 2 minutes so that the paste begins to meld with the other ingredients.
5. Add the chicken broth, remaining 1 cup beans, and red pepper flakes and stir well.  Let simmer for about 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, bring a small saucepan of water to a boil and salt generously.  Add the pasta and cook about 5 minutes.  The pasta should be only partially cooked at this point.  Drain the pasta.
7. After done simmering, add the pasta and bean puree to the soup.  Let simmer for another 5 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.
8. Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve into bowls and top with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Note:  If you are planning on making a lot of this and storing it for leftovers, be aware that the pasta will absorb a lot of the broth over time.  However, the broth also becomes thicker though, and as I can attest to since I just ate it for lunch, the leftovers are delicious as is.  But, if you don't want to deal with the absorption and the thickening, etc., a solution would be to cook the pasta all the way to al dente in step 6.  Then, just add the pasta individually to each bowl of soup.  Reserve extra pasta separately to add to the leftover soup as you eat it. 

Ryan's rating of Pasta e Fagioli - 4.5

Scallops Venetian Style

Before anyone out there can call me out on it, I'll point it out myself.  I never made a dessert from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, so how can I be moving on to a new region? Well, I did make an attend at a dessert from Friuli, but to be honest it came out like hell.  So, this weekend I promise to make a second attempt.  i thought about scrapping it altogether and only doing 3 dishes from Friuli, but the guilt overpowered me. So check back this weekend or early next week for that missing dessert!

In the meantime, I'm going to keep things moving along with the next region.  I thought about pushing back the start for the Veneto region until that blasted dessert from last week was finally done, but decided that had disaster written all over it.  It's like skipping a day at the gym.  You convince yourself that you will go extra later in the week to make up for it, but really what happens is that your whole routine gets sidetracked and your next gym trip turns into you sitting on the couch with a bag of chips watching 90210 reruns on Soap Net.  (This is just a guess...) 

So, I decided to push forward into the region of Veneto.  This region in the Northeast of Italy is best known for the dazzling city of Venice.  Now, I have heard plenty of complaints about Venice, particularly about the city's sanitary condition.  Personally, I loved my time here.  I didn't find it any dirtier than major cities in the US (although in all fairness, I can see why the hundreds of pigeons that congregate in Piazza San Marco would gross out some people). 

My roommate in Italy, Kate, and I in Piazza San Marco.  Note all of the pigeons.

To me, the city screams mystique.  The winding, narrow streets that are lined with storefronts displaying their masks for carnevale remind me of something out of the movie Labyrinth. 

But, I digress.  This blog is about food after all, right? To be perfectly honest, of all of the things that impressed me about Venice, the food was not one of them.  Without a doubt, there are tons of fantastic restaurants in Venice that highlight the dishes of the region.  However, I only spent 2 days in Venice, and didn't have much time to really search for such places.  What I found was that there (in my opinion), are more tourist-sucking restaurants in Venice than I found in Rome.  I mean, seriuosly, $12 Euro for a plate of penne?  When most restaurants in Italy give you a 5 course meal for $15 Euro, that is a scam.  So for me, it is a lot of fun to research and discover the true culinary taste of Venice, and all of Veneto, since it is the only place that I have been to in Italy where I really felt like I didn't get an idea of the regional flavor during my visit.

As I'm sure isn't a surprise to anyone, because of it's place on the Adriatic, much of the food from Veneto focuses on seafood.  For dinner last night, I made Scallops Venetian Style, or Capesante alla Veneziana.  This is a super simple appetizer to make.  It has practically no prep time, and cooks in 5 minutes.  Can't ask for much more than that. 

Scallops Venetian Style

Adapted from Big Oven 

-Serves 4 as an antipasto-

Ingredients:

1 pound scallops

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Process:

1. Wash scallops under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the scallops, garlic, salt and pepper.  Let cook 5-6 minutes, or until the scallops begin to get a golden brown crust.
3. Pour in the lemon juice and stir to incorporate.  Serve immediately on a warm plate.

If you want to get extra fancy with the presentation of this dish, you can do the same thing that I recommended for Granzevola alla Triestina and find some scallop shells to use as mini plates for your antipasto.  For me though, eating these right out of the pan with Ryan while cooking the rest of our dinner was just fine!

Ryan's rating of Scallops Venetian Style - 5.