We’re staying in a converted rice mill on the Veronese Plain, an area famous (in Italy at least) as the home of the prized Vialone Nano rice. Although the area’s broad plains don’t have the classic glamour of, say, Tuscany, neither does it have the baggage. There’s nothing more dispiriting than walking into a restaurant in Italy to feel like you’ve crash landed in Fulham. No chance of that here. Where we’re staying there aren’t really any tourists -English or otherwise - and many of the locals don’t speak English for that matter.
The lack of interest by the Englese in visiting this area is a bit baffling, and underscores our preoccupation with a certain romantic view of what an Italian holiday should look like. It’s more surprising given the regional abundance of spectacular nosh and wine. A slurp of wonderful vino from Valpolicella or Soave is but a quick whizz along the motorway away. And, obviously, food deliciousness is everywhere we look.
Amarone risotto is one of the tegion’s classic dishes that Girl Child and i have coveted from afar in restaurants but not yet ordered. Perhaps the gleaming bowls of ruby red rice, suffused with Amarone wine from Valpolicella, didn’t seem appropriate for a child. We were wrong.
Although half a bottle of the stuff gets poured into the rice, the slow cooking and stirring, plus the addition of the stock, takes away the alcoholic edge completely, leaving a deeply flavourful plate of rice. The Vialone Nano seems fatter and creamier than other risotto rice, but i may be getting carried away. I think we used a Monte Veronese cheese that was a little too fresh, but I didn’t hear any complaints. This is an absolutely wonderful dish and hard to believe such flavour can be coaxed from so few ingredients.
The recipe was not my own but can be found here.
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