Glorious Recipes: Risotto all’isolana

Ciao everyone! We’ve decided to start a new series of posts on the blog, where I’ll introduce an exciting recipe for you to try at home. I wanted to begin our collection of Glorious Recipes with a dish that’s hugely important to all of us – our famous risotto all’isolana.

When Giordano was little, he lived in a town in the province of Verona called Isola della Scala. The town is famous across Italy for producing a particular type of rice known as Vialone Nano, or Nano Vialone Veronese IGP, to give it its full title. In 1996, it became the first variety of rice to be granted Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status by the European Union. This is the official EU mark for the protection of unique, high-quality foods which are certified as linked to the particular area in which they are produced.

The tradition of producing beautiful rice dishes continues each year in Isola della Scala with the Fiera del Riso. It’s a celebration of delicious rice-based foods which takes place every autumn and lasts for around three weeks. I’ve visited the fiera twice (including a trip there as part of our Food Festival Holiday Tour in 2015) and tried everything from arancini (deep-fried rice balls originating from Sicily) to delicate pumpkin risotto. Here I am back in 2011 with my arancino which, if my memory serves me correctly, had some delicious gorgonzola in it!

In October 1982, Giordano’s family bought Ristorante La Torre in the town centre, and the family stayed in Isola della Scala until the early 90s. In the photo below you can see the building where the restaurant used to be!

We also paid a visit to Ferron, a family business in Isola della Scala who have been producing some of the finest Vialone Nano rice in Italy since 1650. During the tourist season they offer cookery lessons and guided tours of their factory!

Giordano’s father has very kindly provided some background information on the dish and the recipe, which I’ve translated into English below:

“Risotto all’isolana is an ancient recipe invented for tasting and testing just-prepared sausage meat. This was in order to check that the correct amount of salt had been added. For this reason, the mixture of preserved meats that were used at the time were called “tastasal“, a name still in use in Northern Italy today.

In 1985, the then-mayor of Isola della Scala approved the official recipe for risotto all’isolana. From then on, the tastasal (ground sausage mince) used in the risotto was made of equal parts pork and veal and blended with stock, a sprig of rosemary, cinnamon, butter and grated Italian cheese.”

Our recipe is totally gluten-free and uses only locally sourced pork meat from Mettrick’s. Their outdoor-reared pork is procured directly from the farm and has been found to have some of the highest welfare standards in the UK.

To make your own risotto all’isolana, you will need:

• 100g risotto rice per person
• 100ml pork stock
• 50g tastasal
• 30g unsalted butter
• 30g grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese
• 2g ground cinnamon

• Cook the ground sausage meat in a small saucepan with 20g of unsalted butter and a sprig of rosemary. Remove the rosemary once the sausage meat is cooked.
• Divide the grated cheese into two small bowls, then add the ground cinnamon to one of these bowls.
• Bring the stock to the boil and add the rice to the same pan. The rice will form a small mound, and the stock should cover the rice completely.
• Leave the rice to cook on a very low heat, without stirring, for 14 minutes.
• Once the rice is cooked, add the sausage meat, the remaining butter and the grated cheese that was mixed with the ground cinnamon.
• Mix thoroughly and then cover the pan, first with a cotton teatowel and then with the saucepan lid. Leave to stand for 5 minutes and then mix in the remaining cheese.
• And serve!

Let me know how you get on with this recipe and please give me a shout if you have any questions! I will be back soon with more stories, recipes and adventures.

A presto!

Laura