Cooking Rice with an Italian Accent! (19 page)

(BAKED CREAM OF RICE PUDDING)

SERVES 8

Geni La Bozzetta Stilo served this awesome dessert at a New Year's Eve champagne cocktail party. I was fortunate enough to be there and to get her recipe two days later.

1 quart water with ½ teaspoon salt

18 level tablespoons long-grain rice

1 quart whole milk

1 vanilla pod with beans inside, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons sugar

½ cup heavy cream

1 shot glass Amaretto di Saronno liqueur

5 egg yolks, beaten

2 tablespoons sultana raisins (plumped in tepid water ½ hour, drained and dried)

12 Amaretti cookies softened with rum and crumbled (Amaretti can be mail ordered. Address
here
)

Pinch of salt

5 egg whites, whipped until they form stiff peaks

Preheat oven to 350°. Cook the rice in boiling salted water for four minutes. Bring the milk and vanilla to a boil in another saucepan and add the cooked rice. Cover and simmer on low heat for twenty-five minutes. Pour into blender with butter, sugar, cream, liqueur, and the beaten egg yolks. Blend for a minute until very smooth. Pour into a mixing bowl. Stir in raisins, crumbled cookies soaked in rum, and then fold in stiff egg whites. Smooth into a caramelized baking dish (to caramelize the baking dish, sprinkle 5 tablespoons of sugar on the bottom and stir in 2 tablespoons of water, cook on low heat on top of the stove, stirring constantly with wooden spoon until the sugar becomes a dark brown syrup). Bake in oven placed inside a deeper dish filled with water ¾ the depth of the baking dish containing the
budino.
Bake for forty-five minutes. Remove and allow to cool for twenty minutes, garnish with 4 ounces of grated bittersweet chocolate. Bring to table and serve. You'll never eat ordinary rice pudding again.

 

Sformato Dolce di Riso alle Nocciole

(BAKED MOLD OF SWEET RICE WITH HAZELNUTS)

SERVES 6

The Sicilians are known throughout Italy as the best pastry chefs and inventors of outrageous desserts. My favorite pastry shop is in Taormina, in Sicily. Its owner, a distinguished and elegant Sicilian, Giuseppe Chemi, and I have become friends. For ten consecutive years he has won the top award for pastries from the Italian National Pastry Association. This recipe won him a special grand award in 1993.

3 heaping tablespoons sultana raisins, soaked in tepid water ½ hour, drained and dried

10 heaping tablespoons Arborio rice, boiled for five minutes, drained

7 tablespoons hazelnuts (filberts), toasted, and coarsely chopped

5 tablespoons honey

Grated rind of 1 large orange

1 shot glass of Amaretto di Saronno liqueur

2 Amaretti cookies, crushed

6 egg yolks (reserve whites) beaten with: 4 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons melted butter

½ cup whole milk

¼ cup heavy cream

Pinch of salt

6 reserved egg whites beaten until they form stiff peaks

2 tablespoons butter

Plain bread crumbs

8 butter cookies finely chopped (Peak Frean brand or Pepperidge Farm)

Preheat oven to 500°. Place the raisins in a mixing bowl. Stir in cooked rice. Add the chopped hazelnuts, honey, grated orange peel, liqueur, and crushed amaretti cookies. Add the beaten egg yolks (containing sugar and melted butter), the milk, and the cream. Stir vigorously. Fold in beaten egg whites with a wooden spoon. Grease a bundt baking pan with 1 tablespoon butter. Dust with bread crumbs. Fill with batter. Level the batter with a wet spatula. Sprinkle with crushed butter cookies and dot with remaining tablespoon of butter. Bake for twenty-five minutes. Lower oven to 350° and place bundt pan on lowest rack for three hours. Unmold on serving plate. (Fill sink with hot water and insert pan ¾ up its side for five minutes to aid in unmolding.) Serve to your guests. This cake can be refrigerated for up to two days covered, then unmolded and served. Congratulations! You've made a gold medal winner.

 

Budino di Riso al Forno

(BAKED RICE PUDDING)

SERVES 4

It was early in the month of May. I was a guest at the Regina Palace Hotel in the enchanting town of Stresa on the shores of the magnificent Lago Maggiore. I looked out at the shimmering lake surrounded by the Pre-Alpine mountains. It was forty degrees and raining lightly. Soon I walked down to the charming dining room with my traveling companion, Peter Gaglioti of Maywood, New Jersey. The dinner was better than average hotel fare. Near the end of the meal, a waiter dressed in white, rolled out the dessert cart. This rice pudding seemed to call me by name. I answered. It was love at first bite.

1 quart whole milk

3½ ounces long-grain rice

3 tablespoons sugar

2 ounces sultana raisins, soaked in warm water ½ hour and drained

1 tablespoon candied citron, diced small

Pinch of salt

2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks, beaten

Shot glass cognac

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons butter

Plain bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350°. Heat milk in a small saucepan to a boil. Add rice. Lower heat to simmer and cook for eight minutes. Add sugar, sultana raisins, 1 tablespoon butter, diced candied citron, and pinch of salt and cook, stirring, another eight minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool down for ten minutes. Add beaten eggs, cognac, vanilla extract, and mix very well. Grease a bundt baking pan with remaining tablespoon butter and dust with bread crumbs. Bake for thirty minutes. Remove and invert on round serving platter.

Accompany the baked pudding with 3½ ounces apricot jam cooked on gentle heat to loosen, with a half shot glass of cognac, for five minutes. Pour the loosened apricot jam over the top of the pudding. Serve hot.

 

Coppe di Riso e Ciliege

(RICE AND CHERRY CUPS)

SERVES 6

This is an attractive and delectable dessert that packs a wallop because of the wine and cherry liqueur with which it is made. I tasted this terrific dessert sitting at a table set in the midst of a grove of cherry trees in Enna, Sicily, on a sunny November afternoon with good friends.

10 ounces of very ripe fresh cherries, washed and pitted

2 shot glasses of maraschino cherry liqueur

1 tablespoon sugar

1½ cups of muscatel wine

9 ounces long-grain rice

3 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup whole milk

2 ounces candied citron, julienned

6 candied cherries

6 dessert glasses

Place the fresh cherries in a small saucepan with the maraschino liqueur, tablespoon sugar, and wine. Cook on gentle heat for twenty minutes. Drain and reserve liquid. In another saucepan place rice, 3 tablespoons of sugar, pinch of salt, vanilla, milk, and reserved cherry cooking liqueur and stir. Cook on gentle heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice has absorbed almost all the liquid. Mix in the cooked cherries. Distribute into 6 dessert glasses. Garnish around the edges of each cup with julienned candied citron. Place candied cherry in the center of each cup. Refrigerate for two hours, then serve.
Meraviglioso!
(Marvelous!)

 

Torta di Riso e Banane

(RICE AND BANANA CAKE)

SERVES 4 TO 5

This is a delightful combination of rice and bananas in a not-too-sweet cake. Of course, you should serve Italian espresso in demitasse cups and have a bottle of Anisette or Sambuca on the table.

1 quart whole milk

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Zest of one lemon (just the outer skin, not the bitter white pith) in one long piece

7 ounces long-grain rice

4 eggs, separated (save egg whites)

4 to 5 Amaretti cookies, crushed

10 ounces of banana, cubed or diced

1 tablespoon candied citron, diced

1 tablespoon butter

Plain bread crumbs

Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°. Put the milk in a saucepan with the sugar and lemon zest. Put on moderate heat and cook until thick. Remove from heat and discard the lemon zest. Allow to cool.

Beat the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar until creamy. Add the cooked rice, the crushed cookies, the diced banana, and the candied citron. Mix well. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the rice-banana mixture.

Grease a cake pan with butter. Dust with bread crumbs. Pour in batter. Bake for forty-five minutes. Let cool. Remove from pan. Dust with powdered sugar and serve. Don't forget the espresso and the Sambuca.

 

Pallottoline di Riso Rosa

(RED RICE BALLS)

SERVES 6

These sweet, red rice balls should be served while they are still hot from deep frying. They should be accompanied by frosty glasses of Asti Spumante or sweet marsala wine.

1 quart whole milk

Zest from 2 oranges—only the outer layer of skin, no white pith

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons heavy cream

3½ ounces long-grain rice

4 egg yolks

2 shot glasses of Rosolio liqueur, or any other deep, red liqueur, like cherry brandy

1 heaping tablespoon all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons warm beer

1 teaspoon lukewarm water

2 cups shortening (like Crisco)

Powdered sugar

Bring milk to boil. Add orange zest and sugar. Add cream and rice. Cook on moderate heat, constantly stirring, until it becomes a dense pudding (about thirty-five to forty minutes). Remove from heat. Beat in 2 egg yolks, one by one, and the red liqueur. Pour into bowl of a food processor fitted with a plastic blade and process until smooth (about one minute). Pour into a large, shallow dish and refrigerate for one hour. This forms the above into tiny balls. Then, with slotted spoon remove the tiny balls that have formed. Now prepare the batter separately.

Beat the 2 egg yolks with flour and pinch of salt. Mix in oil, beer, and lukewarm water. Beat until the consistency of cream. Now place the rice balls one by one in the batter. Melt the fat (vegetable shortening) in a deep fryer and bring to high heat. Place a strainer that fits within the dimensions of the deep fryer and drop small amounts of the rice balls into the hot grease. Fry until brown on all sides, remove with strainer and place on paper towels. Continue this frying process until all the rice balls are fried. Pile them on a round dish to form a little mountain. Sprinkle with plenty of powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

 

Riso Dolce con Pesche

(SWEET RICE WITH PEACHES)

SERVES 6

This wonderful dessert should only be made when peaches are at the height of their season. Please don't try to substitute canned peaches. It would do a great injustice to this recipe and to your family and guests. This recipe was given to me by Claudia La Bozzetta from Reggio Calabria, Italy.

7 ounces long-grain rice

½ quart whole milk

6 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

½ vanilla pod or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

3 egg yolks

2 tablespoons milk

4 large ripe peaches

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup orange juice

Wash the rice in a colander, then place in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil on high heat. Remove from heat. Let stand five minutes, then drain. Run cold water over the rice and drain well. Heat milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a saucepan on moderate heat. Add rice and bring to a boil. Stir in butter, lower heat to low, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Remove from heat and loosen the grains with a fork. Then add egg yolks beaten with milk. Stir well. Pour onto a serving dish and, with a palette knife, shape into a cake. Refrigerate for one hour. Immerse the peaches in a large pot of boiling water.

When water returns to a boil, take out the peaches. Peel them, cut into halves, remove the pits, and cut into equal sections. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar and orange juice. Refrigerate for two hours. Just before serving the rice pudding, decorate it with the sliced peaches and pour their juice over the top of the pudding, slice, and serve.

Epilogue

It was a bittersweet experience writing this book. Doing the research was a blast, but writing the comments brought back many memories of dear people who have died since I met them. I confess that I don't know a thing about Asian cooking, but I know that there must be thousands of ways of cooking rice in the orient. But my first love is Italy and its cuisines. I guess it's because I'm an Italian.

My fond hope is that you get to know me through my books. Perhaps this short poem will help you understand who Father Giuseppe Orsini really is. It was written by Gaspare Lo Bue in the Sicilian language and it has become my daily prayer before I celebrate Mass.