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Note Although the whole, bright red leaf looks very attractive in a salad, radicchio can be made to taste sweeter by splitting the head in half, then shredding it fine on the diagonal. This is a secret learned from the radicchio growers of Chioggia. Do not discard the tender, upper part of the root just below the base of the leaves, because it is very tasty.

Radicchietto

Many varieties of small, green radicchio, some wild, some cultivated, are served in salads in Italy. Of the cultivated, the most popular is radicchietto, whose leaves slightly resemble mâche (in Italian, dolcetta or gallinella), but they are thinner, more elongated. The best radicchietto is that cultivated under the salty breezes that sweep through the farm islands in Venice’s lagoon.

RICE

Riso

Choosing the correct rice variety is the first step in making one of the greatest dishes of the Northern Italian cuisine, risotto. What a grain of good risotto rice must be able to do are two essentially divergent things. It must partly dissolve to achieve the clinging, creamy texture that characterizes risotto but, at the same time, it must deliver firmness to the bite.

Of the several varieties of rice for risotto that Italy produces, three are exceptional: Arborio, Vialone Nano, Carnaroli. Arborio and Vialone Nano offer qualities at opposite ends of the scale.

Arborio It is a large, plump grain that is rich in amylopectin, the starch that dissolves in cooking, thus producing a stickier risotto. It is the rice of preference for the more compact styles of risotto that are popular in Lombardy, Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna, such as risotto with saffron, or with Parmesan and white truffles, or with meat sauce.

Vialone Nano A stubby, small grain with more of another kind of starch, amylose, that does not soften easily in cooking, although Vialone Nano has enough amylopectin to qualify it as a suitable variety for risotto. It is the nearly unanimous choice in the Veneto, where the consistency of risotto is looser—all’onda, as they say in Venice, or wavy—and where people are partial to a kernel that offers pronounced resistance to the bite.

Carnaroli It is a new variety, developed in 1945 by a Milanese rice grower who crossed Vialone with a Japanese strain. There is far less of it produced than either Arborio or Vialone Nano, and it is more expensive, but it is unquestionably the most excellent of the three. Its kernel is sheathed in enough soft starch to dissolve deliciously in cooking, but it also contains more of the tough starch than any other risotto variety so that it cooks to an exceptionally satisfying firm consistency.

RICOTTA

The word ricotta literally means “recooked,” and it names, as it describes, the cheese made when whey, the watery residue from the making of another cheese, is cooked again. The resulting product is milk white, very soft, granular, and mild tasting. It is a most resourceful ingredient in the kitchen: It can be used as part of a spread for canapés; it is combined with sautéed Swiss chard or spinach to make a meatless stuffing for ravioli and tortelli; again combined with Swiss chard or spinach, it can be used to make green gnocchi; it can be part of a pasta sauce; it is the key component of the batter for ricotta fritters, a marvelously light dessert; and, of course, there is ricotta cake, versions of which are beyond numbering.

Ricotta romana This is the archetypal ricotta from Latium, Rome’s own home region. Originally, it was made solely from the whey remaining after making pecorino, ewe’s milk cheese. Although some of it is still made that way, these days, in Latium as elsewhere, nearly all ricotta is made from whole or skimmed cow’s milk. It is undeniably a richer product than the traditional one, but ricotta was not really intended to be rich. It was born as a poor byproduct of cheesemaking, lean of texture, slightly tart in flavor, and it is those qualities that make it—and the dishes it is used for—uniquely appealing.

Ricotta salata This is