Biba's Northern Italian Cooking - Biba Caggiano [35]
Place in a warm dish. Serve immediately with additional Parmesan cheese.
RISOTTO WITH ASPARAGUS TIPS
Risotto con Punte di Asparagi
Make this dish in the summer months when asparagus is at its peak.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
6 cups Chicken Broth, page 23, or canned chicken broth
1½ pounds asparagus, smallest available
6 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2½ cups arborio rice, page 5
½ cup dry white wine
⅓ cup whipping cream
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving
Salt to taste
Prepare Chicken Broth.
Clean asparagus and cut off tips. Reserve stalks for another use.
Heat broth in a medium saucepan and keep warm over low heat.
Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a large saucepan.When butter foams, add onion. Sauté over medium heat until pale yellow. Add rice and mix well.When rice is coated with butter, add wine. Cook, stirring constantly, until wine has evaporated. Stir in 1 or 2 ladles of broth, or enough to cover rice. Stir over medium heat until broth has been absorbed. Add more broth as liquid is absorbed. After 10 minutes add asparagus tips. Continue cooking and stirring rice, adding broth a little at a time until rice is done, about 10 minutes. Rice should be tender but firm to the bite. Add cream, ½ cup Parmesan cheese and remaining butter; mix gently. Season with salt.
Place in a warm dish. Serve immediately with additional Parmesan cheese.
Fish and Shellfish
Italy is a long, thin peninsula with the Adriatic Sea to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. No wonder Italians are great fish lovers! But if you leave the Italian seacoasts and go inland, you will find fish consumption is less than you would expect from a country practically surrounded by water.
I was born in Emilia-Romagna. The Emilia side is inland; the Romagna side has a seacoast. In my family, fish was eaten maybe two or three times a month. But I would readily get into a car with family or friends and drive to the coastal town of Rimini to eat the fresh catch of the day. Everybody knew the best fish to be had was at the coast.
Restaurants of the area specialized in excellently prepared fish. Inside these restaurants, fish was generally displayed on a long table with some fish still alive inside large containers of water. You would choose the fish you preferred, then 10 minutes later it would arrive on your plate, broiled, fried, or poached.
What could be better than a fresh batch of shrimp coated lightly with a parsley-garlic mixture and broiled for the briefest time? Or a large pot of clams, simmered in a fresh tomato and herb sauce and served over pasta? Or fresh sole, cooked in a butter-lemon sauce? Italians do not camouflage fish under rich, heavy sauces, but complement them with delicate flavors.
In addition to the marvelously simple fish dishes, every coastal town in Italy has its own fish soup. Whether it is Broeto from Venice, Cacciucco from Leghorn, or Ciuppin from Liguria, each region claims its own fish soup is the best.
The first thing to do when buying fish is to make sure it is fresh. If fish has the head still on, look at the eyes. They should be bright and rounded, not sunken. Look for a moist, shiny skin.The body should be firm and compact, not mushy. Fish should have a fresh ocean smell. If you don’t plan to use fresh fish the same day, place the wrapped fish in a plastic bag and seal it tightly. Put the fish in the coldest part of your refrigerator immediately. Use it within two days.
Frozen fish tends to lose part of its precious moisture as it thaws.This leaves the fish mushy. When you use frozen fish, thaw it in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Don’t leave fish at room temperature or it