Insalate di Riso (Rice Salads)
A rice salad can be served as an appetizer, a main course, a side dish, or as a proper salad. The rice is usually long grained, cooked separately in salted water, drained and served hot, at room temperature or cold.
Riso in Insalata con Maionese Verde
(RICE SALAD WITH GREEN MAYONNAISE)
SERVES 4
Varese is a small village close to Lago Maggiore in the northern end of the region of Lombardy. I was invited to dine with relatives of my dear Sicilian friend, Dr. Salvatore Cerniglia. This salad was served as an appetizer to a magnificent meal. It really piqued my appetite.
2 tablespoons small capers
1 small dill pickle
2 ounces pitted green olives
3½-ounce can of tuna packed in olive oil, drained and flaked
11 ounces long-grain rice
1 quart water with 1 teaspoon salt
1 small package frozen spinach cooked to package directions, drained, and squeezed dry
½ cup fresh basil leaves
½ cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
Juice of one lemon
1 cup prepared mayonnaise, regular or low-fat
6 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 small head romaine lettuce, separated, leaves washed and dried
Wash the capers, slice the pickle and slice the the green olives into rounds. Add flaked tuna. Mix all the above in the bottom of a salad bowl. Boil the rice uncovered in the salted water for twenty minutes. Drain and run cold water over it to stop further cooking. Pour into salad bowl and mix with contents on bottom of the bowl. Place spinach, basil, parsley, lemon juice, mayonnaise, oil, and pinches of salt and pepper in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add to contents of salad bowl and toss well. Form a small mountain of the contents in a salad bowl or shallow serving dish lined with lettuce leaves. You are in for a treat!
RECOMMENDED WINES:
ARNEIS, PINOT BIANCO
Insalata di Riso Freddo
(COLD RICE SALAD)
SERVES 6
I tasted a rice salad in Marietta La Bozzetta’s home one day and failed to ask for the recipe. I tried to re-create hers. I couldn’t forget how good it was. When I returned from Italy a week later, I invented this rice salad. Everyone, me included, judged it to be a winner. So, here is Papa Joe’s rice salad. Marietta let me make it the following year—she said, “That’s exactly how I make mine.”
8 cups water salted with 1½ teaspoons salt
4 cups long-grain rice
1 large peeled onion, diced
2 6-ounce cans tuna packed in olive oil, flaked
3 ribs celery, diced small
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced small
1 tablespoon small capers, rinsed in cold water and dried with paper towel
1 package frozen peas, completely thawed
1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and sliced into rings
1 10-ounce jar pitted green olives, drained and sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
½ pound mozzarella cheese, diced small
½ pound sharp provolone cheese, diced small
1 jalapeño pepper with seeds, minced
Bring water to boil in a large saucepan. Add rice, stir, and adjust heat to low. Cover and simmer for twenty minutes. Let stand five minutes. While rice is still warm, add all the other ingredients and mix well in your largest bowl. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold. This is a salad that will have them talking.
RECOMMENDED WINES:
VERMENTINO, INZOLIA/CATARATTO
Insalata Calda di Riso
(HOT RICE SALAD)
SERVES 4
You may serve this colorful and tantalizing salad as an appetizer or as a salad to accompany a main course of meat, poultry, or fish. It’s superb.
1½ cups Arborio rice
3 cups water
3½ ounces pancetta or bacon, julienned
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small peeled onion, minced
4 small heads radicchio, cut into halves and washed
1 ounce pitted black olives
1 6-ounce can corn niblets, drained
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cook the rice in a large saucepan in three cups of water, uncovered, for eighteen minutes. Pour into colander, drain and run cold water over it to stop its cooking. Leave in colander. Fry the pancetta in a deep skillet in olive oil on moderate heat for five minutes. Add onion, cook another five minutes. Add the radicchio, olives, and corn. Add Worcestershire sauce and black pepper. Cook for five minutes. Add cooked rice and mix well. Heat for five more minutes. Pour into a deep, warm serving bowl and bring to table.
RECOMMENDED WINES:
RIBOLLA GIALLA, TOCAI FRIULANO
Insalata di Riso allo Zafferano
(SAFFRON RICE SALAD)
SERVES 4
This is an unusually tasty salad that’s perfect for a balmy summer night’s supper. Make it in the morning then refrigerate it (covered with plastic wrap of course). Remove it from the refrigerator one hour before supper to allow it to come to room temperature. If your house is air-conditioned, set it out on your porch or picnic table for one hour, no longer. The cream can spoil.
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 zucchini, unpeeled and sliced into thin rounds
2 red bell peppers, pithed, seeded, and julienned
4 cups water salted with 1 teaspoon salt
2 cups long-grain rice
2 small packages saffron (0.8 gram)
½ cup boiling hot chicken stock
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cognac
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large skillet, sauté zucchini rounds in 2 tablespoons of olive oil on moderate heat until lightly browned on both sides. Empty contents of skillet (zucchini and oil) into a bowl. Set aside. In same skillet, sauté julienned red peppers in 2 tablespoons of olive oil on moderate heat until lightly browned. Empty contents into same bowl containing zucchini. Meanwhile, bring water to boil, add rice, adjust heat to low, cover and simmer for twenty minutes. Pour rice into colander and rinse with cold water. Allow to drain well. Pour drained rice into large salad bowl. Dissolve saffron in ½ cup hot chicken broth. Pour into rice and mix well. Beat cream until it begins to thicken. Still beating, add last 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cognac. Beat for two more minutes. Dress salad with this cream dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Add cooked zucchini and peppers with their oil. Stir vigorously. Serve it immediately, or follow suggestions in the introduction to this recipe. This is very special.
RECOMMENDED WINES:
DOLCETTO, PINOT NOIR/NERO
Insalata di Riso con Salsa di Tonno e Capperi
(RICE SALAD WITH TUNA AND CAPER DRESSING)
SERVES 4
This is a very tasty way of preparing a cold rice salad. It is perfect for a warm summer evening’s light supper. I was very pleased when I tasted it at the house of Giovanna Maisano (my mother’s niece) in Reggio Calabria one sultry August evening.
4 quarts water with 1 teaspoon salt
15 ounces long-grain rice
1 cup fresh flat leaf parsley
¼ small onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 6-ounce can tuna packed in olive oil, flaked
1 pint plain yogurt
1 hard-boiled egg, quartered
4 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise, regular or low-fat
2 tablespoons small capers, drained
½ cup whipped heavy cream (plain cream with no sugar)
Bring water to boil. Stir in rice, return to boil, and cook uncovered for twenty minutes. Drain in colander. Rinse with cold water and allow to drain and cool completely in colander. Meanwhile, in bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, process ½ cup of parsley, the onion, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper until smooth. Empty into a bowl. In the same food processor bowl fitted with steel blade, place tuna, yogurt, hard-boiled egg, mayonnaise and 1 tablespoon of capers and process until smooth. Add half of the reserved onion, oil, and lemon juice dressing. Process for another minute. Transfer to another bowl and hand mix the other half of reserved onion, oil, and lemon dressing. Fold in whipped cream. Mix this dressing with the cold rice in a large bowl. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of capers. Pile onto a serving platter and shape into a little mountain. Either serve immediately or refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap for later use.
RECOMMENDED WINES:
VERMENTINO, FALANGHINA