The Rice is Right (continued)

My Rice Pantry

I always keep a variety of rices at home, since I choose different types for different dishes. I store them in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months. Principato di Lucedio rice is available at specialty food shops or can be ordered online at www.plurinet.it/Lucedio. The recipes here can certainly be prepared with other brands of rice, but do try to use the varieties specified.

Arborio and baldo. Too tender for risotto, they're wonderful in rice pudding, yielding a custardy sauce without eggs or cream and offering just enough chewiness to be interesting. Baldo is also excellent in paella.

Carnaroli. The ideal rice for a classic stirred risotto. Grains are tender yet firm and the liquid is luxuriously creamy.

Vialone Nano. A chewier, heartier rice, this is the kind Venetians favor for their risottos. Because the cooked grains won't get mushy even if they stand for a while, I reach for Vialone Nano when I make a risotto cake or when I use a chef’s trick and cook a creamy risotto halfway through (then I finish cooking the dish right before I'm ready to serve it.) This rice can absorb up to 30 percent more liquid than the other varieties, so plan accordingly.

Both Vialone Nano and Carnaroli make exceptionally creamy risottos without additional butter or cream. Their main difference lies in the texture of their grains. I prefer Carnaroli for risotto because it has a lovely balance of tenderness and firmness and a truly luxurious creaminess. In Vialone Nano, the rice favored by Venetians, the grains are chewier and more distinct, producing a heartier risotto (it absorbs about 1/3 more liquid than other rices). I use it in recipes where I want to hold the cooked rice before finishing the dish — either cooking a risotto half way to finish it at the last minute as chef’s often do, or molding cooked risotto into a savory cake — because there is no danger of the grains becoming mushy. In comparision to these toothsome rices, both Baldo, a quicker cooking hybrid, and the ubiquitous Arborio seem too tender for risotto. I found them to be wonderful in rice pudding, yielding a thick custardy sauce without eggs or cream and just enough texture to be interesting. Baldo is also excellent in paella.