Orders placed during the holidays will be shipped from 01/09/2026
Orders placed during the holidays will be shipped from 01/09/2026
September is the month of the new rice and pumpkin harvest. Both come to us from very far away: the first from China via India and Alexander the Great, the second from the New World, to be precise from the territories of present-day Mexico and Peru.
Rice has been grown in Italy since 1500 in the areas of what is now Piedmont and Lombardy and then spread eastwards to Verona, Vicenza and part of the Treviso area. These are areas where there is abundant water: in Lombardy and Piedmont, the floodwaters of the Po were used, while the Verona area is rich in springs.
Il riso Veneto più famoso è il vialone nano che dal 1996 vanta il riconoscimento di qualità IGP. Il vialone nano è un riso semi-fino che difficilmente scuoce, adattissimo per risotti come il cugino Carnaroli ben più conosciuto e più utilizzato in Italia per il risotto ma che personalmente non cambio più con nessun’altra qualità.
The most famous rice from Veneto is Vialone Nano, which since 1996 has boasted IGP quality recognition. Vialone Nano is a semi-fine rice that rarely overcooks, and is very suitable for risottos like its cousin Carnaroli, which is much better known and more widely used in Italy for risotto but which I personally would never change for any other quality.
Rice can be considered the same as polenta in the Veneto region and is combined with any ingredient, whether land or sea, for soups or risottos that are “all on the wave” or drier. And what about pumpkin? Sweet, with a beautiful orange colour, rich in carotenoids, cultivated in Chioggia since 1600 and known by the name of “Zucca Barucca” or “Zucca Marina” and remembered by Goldoni in his “Baruffe Chioggiotte”, it was mainly baked in the oven but used for many other preparations, from “Pinsa” to “Smergiasa” to “Ravioi” (ravioli) stuffed with pumpkin to “Gnochi de suca” to “Risi e suca”.
So here is my recipe for pumpkin risotto, which in this case is enriched with seafood.
Prepare the pumpkin cleaned and cut into pieces.
Slice the shallot, clean the squid and cut it into thin rings; clean the shrimps by removing the shell and the gut but leave four with the tails which will be used for decoration. Finely chop the leaves of a sprig of rosemary and set them aside.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in your Ghisanativa, add the shallot and a sprig of rosemary (1), sauté for a few minutes, remove the rosemary and add the pumpkin with a little boiling water (2) and cook until soft, covering with the lid and stirring occasionally (3).
When the pumpkin is cooked (4), blend it with an immersion blender to a puree (5). Add the rice to the pumpkin puree (6), some of the boiling stock and stir; when the stock has been absorbed continue to add it a little at a time until the rice is cooked; season with salt.
In the meantime, in another frying pan, sauté the prawns in a little oil and deglaze with a little white wine; set aside four whole prawns for decoration and cut the others into pieces by removing the tails (about 3 or 4 minutes); then set them aside. When the rice is almost cooked, add the prawns in pieces.
Five minutes before the rice is cooked, heat the Ghisanativa griddle well, add two spoonfuls of oil and fry the squid rings quickly (7); it will take about two minutes before they are ready.
Turn off the heat (8) and cream the risotto with the cold butter in pieces and the 2 tablespoons of Grana Padano cheese (9), keeping the risotto “on the wave”; serve, decorating with the squid rings and prawn tails, a sprinkling of black pepper and chopped rosemary.
“Cooking teacher, Venetian by adoption, born and lived until the age of 18 in the city of La Spezia from a Sardinian father and a Ligurian mother, from La Spezia to be precise, with a little Piedmontese blood. I left pieces of my heart in Shanghai, Buenos Aires and London. There are many reasons why I cook, to feed and to nourish myself of course, but I think I cook above all for love, for love of my loved ones and why not, to be loved in turn. I love the tango, the sea, books that make you dream, ceramics, fans, languages and… cooking and baking of course!”
