Tag: Piedmont

Time for rice and beans! Let's discover two traditional Piedmont recipes   The eternal disputes about Paniscia from Novara and Panissa from Vercelli involves two protagonists of the winter tables in Upper Piedmont: rice and beans. Risotto.us, the Italian website dedicated to risotto, with almost 400 recipes that you can easily browse by ingredient, tells us more about these traditional dishes and their variations (soups and bean salad). Bean Risotto Beans (and legumes in general) are considered very caloric ingredients. In fact, their high nutritional value consists mainly of proteins and carbohydrates, which combine perfectly with those of cereals, creating one-dish meals with a precious nutritional value. Bean risotto, for example, if prepared without adding fat, provides all the nutrients that would be taken from meat and eggs, but without cholesterol! To help this aspect is the lecithin of legumes, which promotes the emulsion of fats, preventing them from accumulating in the blood and configuring these ingredients as allies to "lower your cholesterol"... How do you cook it? First, it is recommended to use dried beans. There are black-eyed beans, which are the ones that contain the most fibres, the common ones (Borlotti, Spanish, Corona and Cannellini beans) and the black ones. As they are rich in fibre, it is necessary to leave them to soak for at least half a day, before boiling them for at least an hour: it is an important step, since cooking times are different for beans and rice! Add the boiled beans to the rice, proceed normally by adding gradually the broth until the end of cooking. Canned beans can also be used: however, it is necessary to wash them very well before using them or reduce the amount of salt during the preparation of risotto, since canned beans have a greater amount of

Risotto for all seasons: let's discover the autumn recipes   We are in the season of warm colours: orange, yellow, red, brown. Autumn, with its typical ingredients, also changes the colour of risotto, offering tasty and at the same time healthy recipes. Regarding risotto, the rice variety recommended by Risotto.us, the Italian website dedicated to risotto, is always from the superfine family, like Carnaroli - loved by chefs, the Arborio - the most famous abroad - or the Sant'Andrea - the creamy, par excellence. Risotto with pumpkin, chestnuts, blue cheese and amaretti biscuits The autumn risotto arises from the contrast between the orange of the pumpkin and the brown of the chestnuts, on which stands the white and green of the blue cheese. Creaminess and crunchiness complement each other with the sweet note of the amaretti crumble. Nice, good and even healthy. Chestnuts, first of all, are rich in fiber and have a rather high caloric intake (almost 300 calories on 100 grams), covering the sugar intake of the dish. Despite the sweet taste, instead, pumpkins have a very low amount of sugar if compared to the large amount of water and few calories, so they balance the dish very well. The sweet notes of these ingredients contrast with the blue cheese, which in the production areas of Italian rice is usually Gorgonzola cheese, sweet or spicy (seasoned). If these three elements give the recipe a great creaminess, there is need for a final touch of crunchiness for the risotto: so here is the amaretti crumble, which is the final treat for the arrival of the cold season. Ingredients for 4 servings: 320g Carnaroli rice 300g pumpkin 16 boiled chestnuts 1/2 glass of white wine Vegetable broth 1 shallot 200g Edelpilz Butter and Parmigiano cheese 12 amaretti biscuits Method for