Italian cuisine.. how to cook

**Occhi Di Davide** · January 30, 2012, 09:47 PM

Today i'll show and teach you what i will eat today at lunch, aka risi and bisi...a traditional dish of the area where i live.

Risi e Bisi
(rice and peas plus bacon)
An ancient recipe from the Serenissima

Brief introduction:

Risi e bisi is a typical recipe coming from the venetian tradition, perfect to be tasted during the winter-early spring period, basically because in this season you can find the best peas around, main ingredient of this recipe. Giving a definition of risi e bisi is not easy and many people still in present days, are questioning themselves if this recipe may belong at the category of risotto or soup. The answer is simple..neither one nor the other! Infact risi e bisi, to be called in this way, requires to be a middle course between the two. Not that dry and not that watery. About the origins, i can say without a doubt that this recipe was considered as regal by almost all the venetian population. By tradition, it was a use and costume of the city, to offer risi at the venetian Doge on the occasion of the patron saint day aka saint Mark, april 25.

Ingredients:

1 lit of broth
60 grams of butter
1 onion
4 spoons of olive oil
50 grams of bacon
4 spoons of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Ground white pepper, quantity according to own tastes
1 kg of fresh peas
A handful of parsley
400 grams of Vialone rice (if you dont have it, use Arborio type)

Directions:

Take the onion and slice it and sautè it in oil and butter with finely minced bacon.
Wnen the color of onion looks gold, add the rice and then you have to stir constantly.
At some point, around min 3-5 the rice becomes translucent and you have to add green pea broth a ladle at a time.
THe broth has to be done before cooking the shells of peas in lightly salted water and then straining the liquid.
When the rice is half done add the peas, plus a handful of minced parsley. When the rice reaches the al dente stage, turn off the flame, stir in a chunk of unsalted butter the size of a walnut, and a couple of tablespoons of grated Parmigiano.
If you like it, freshly ground white pepper too.

Serves: 4 persons

If you have problems with the procedures i have written, you can follow this tutorial i have found on Youtube and explaining more or less my same thing..

Seeya tomorrow or well today (lol) and bon appetit!!!

**Armatus** · January 31, 2012, 12:38 AM

we wanna see you make it?

**☩Lord Inquisitor Derpy Hooves☩** · January 31, 2012, 06:33 AM

Next time I am at home I will have to make this. That will have to wait until March or April.

**Occhi Di Davide** · January 31, 2012, 08:17 AM

If you are not able to get the fresh peas, you can safely replace them with simple frozen peas, but avoiding to put their pods into the recipe. Furthermore, if you want to make this recipe lighter, you can replace the butter with other four tablespoons of olive oil

**Armatus** · April 10, 2012, 09:32 PM

If you like Anthony Bourdain, here are some tubes of his exploration of Italian cuisine,

(edit: if you want the full length high res version, visit his site on the travel channel they have all his shows on video there:
http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-show...ourdain/videos

Rome