Risi e Bisi - Rice and Peas.  Add/Read Comments

Risi e Bisi, a speciality of Veneto is basically (risotto) rice and peas. A restaurant in the region served Risi e Bisi as a firm oblong with a half-round of pea puree forming a giant pea. It was simple yet tasty but not 'traditional' according to my hosts, who explained that it should verge on the soupy end of the wetness scale. My preferences for risotto tends towards the dry as served in the restaurant.

Recipe variations abound. The Concise Gastronomy of Italy by Anna del Conte suggests using petits pois or sugar snap peas as well as onion, parsley, fennel seeds and plenty of Parmesan. Claudia Roden's The Food of Italy ignores fennel but adds chopped pancetta or unsmoked bacon and a little sugar in addition to the ubiquitous parsley and Parmesan.

With few fresh herbs to hand, bar chives, I ensured that the stock held plenty of flavour; the crux of any decent risotto. The addition of a large splash of Bisol Prosecco before the first ladle of stock added another dimension. The rice was from a new Italian food range Jada, Vialone Nano rice, that is soon to be launched in the UK and USA.

For a wine match I returned to the restaurants recommendation, a Bisol Prosecco - as they were my hosts how could I refuse!