Francescas Risi E Bici Recipes

RISI E BISI -- ITALIAN STYLE RICE AND PEAS

Steps:

• Place chicken stock in a small pot and warm over low heat.
• Heat a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil 2 turns of the pan, and garlic. Saute garlic 1 minute, then add Arborio. Toast the Arborio rice 2 minutes, then ladle in 1/3 of the stock. Bring to a bubble. Stir rice occasionally, allowing the rice to get starchy and the stock to cook into the rice. Add more stock when rice starts to become dry. Continue stirring and ladling broth until rice is al dente, 22 minutes. Stir in peas and cheese and season with salt and pepper, to your taste. Serve immediately.

RISI E BISI | AUTHENTIC VENETIAN RICE AND PEAS

Steps:

• Make a vegetable broth and set aside. Then shell the peas, keeping the pods aside. Wash the pods under running water.
• Boil the pods in lightly salted water for about 45 minutes. Once cooked, blend them with an immersion blender until they are a thick puree. Then pour the puree into a colander to collect the liquid and remove the fibrous part. Keep the liquid thus collected warm and set aside
• Chop the onion and cut the pancetta into small pieces. Place the oil, half the butter, onion and pancetta in a large skillet. Sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then add the chopped parsley as well.
• Add the peas and two ladles of broth. Cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the green juice made from the pods, season to taste with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Then, lower the heat and add the rice.
• Cook slowly for about 15 minutes. While cooking, stir risi and bisi from time to time and, if they get too dry, add more broth. When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat and add the other half of the butter. Then add the grated Parmigiano cheese and stir. The authentic Venetian recipe for Risi e Bisi is ready

FRANCESCA'S RISI E BICI

Steps:

• Put the saffron threads into the hot chicken stock to steep(keep warm).
• Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat, stir in fennel, onion and mushrooms and saute 4 minutes.
• Add the rice to the vegetable mixture, stir frequently until rice is shiny and has begun to absorb the butter.
• Lower the heat and add the wine, stirring constantly until the wine is absorbed.
• Next pour in 1/4 cup of the hot stock, stir constantly until the stock is absorbed, do this 1/4 cup at at time until all the stock has been absorbed by the rice.
• Stir in the peas and olive oil cook an additional 3 minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese on top of the rice just before serving.

RISI E BISI

Steps:

• Heat broth in a small pot on the back burner over medium-low.
• Set a wide, shallow, long-handled pan over medium-low. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil until butter foams. Set the remaining 1 tablespoon butter back in the fridge to keep cold.
• Add scallions, season with a pinch of salt and stir until sweated and soft, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add zucchini coins, season with a pinch of salt, and stir until they start to sweat, begin to soften and become a little translucent, about 2 minutes.
• Push vegetables out to the edge of the pan in a ring, leaving an empty space in the center. Adjust heat - a tad hotter - then add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, then rice. Stir rice until coated and glistening, and keep stirring until it begins sizzling slightly.
• Microplane the garlic over the sizzling rice, then draw the vegetables into the rice as well, stirring well to combine, leaving a little space - a moatlike ring - along the edges where the vegetables were.
• Add the peas to the empty outer space you just created. Run your spoon through them, keeping them in their outer ring, coating them in the oil and moisture. Season the whole business with another pinch of salt.
• Ladle a generous cup of hot broth over the rice mixture in the center, seasoning with salt at each addition of broth, and stirring as the liquid is absorbed. Add another generous cupful of broth, stirring the rice while it absorbs. Repeat once more with a third cup of hot broth, stirring until the rice starts to show signs of its signature starchy and creamy nature. Keep the peas at the outer edge as much as possible. (This might remind you of making homemade pasta, when you are whisking the eggs in the well of the flour and very slowly drawing in the flour.) This entire step should take about 20 minutes. Adjust the heat slightly along the way for a very gentle, hot steaming - not hard simmering - stirring all the while.
• Add the remaining broth all at once. The peas and vegetables will slightly float on the surface, while the rice will naturally remain submerged. Stir gently or shake and swirl the pan in the classic cresting, swelling wave style, all'onde, bringing everything together - rice, zucchini, peas, broth - about 7 more minutes, maybe 10 at most.
• Turn off heat. Season assertively with black pepper. Stir or swirl in the remaining chilled butter, and finish with the grated cheese. Serve hot.