This is a risotto from Veneto, North-east Italy, a region that offers a magnificent but restrained fish and seafood cuisine, well exemplified by this sober, briny risotto with mussels – Peoci is local dialect for mussels, cozze in Italian. If you happen to spend a few days in Venice, the capital of Veneto, do check the Rialto fish market, which is a cornucopia of marine life and whose charm made Elizabeth David write one of most celebrated pieces of food writing in English. It is as magical now as it was sixty years ago. Continue reading “Risoto de peoci (Risotto with mussels)”
Ris e latt is Milanese dialect for the Italian riso e latte, rice and milk. It sounds dull – it is not. It is a warming, un-showy but far from boring minestra (soup) from Lombardy: risotto rice simmered in a copious quantity of full fat milk and water, mildly flavored with a little onion and bay leaf, enriched in the end by a generous amount of butter and Parmesan, a touch of freshly grated nutmeg and a shower of chopped parsley. There are many versions of this dish: I prefer it soupy but it is also possible to make it thicker, although it should not be risotto-like. Some people cook the rice with milk only (too rich for me) and others start with cooking some chopped onion in butter and then add all the other ingredients. I have also seen versions with chestnuts (cooked, vacuum-packed chestnuts now easily available) and even with potatoes added to the liquid at the very beginning.
Italian home cooking 