Insalata di Riso

Rice rinsed cold to stop it clumping, dressed while slightly warm.

Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish, provolone whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 400 g long grain or parboiled rice
• 200 g giardiniera, chopped
• 200 g tinned tuna in oil, drained
• 150 g provolone or emmental, diced
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
• 100 g green olives
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Boil the rice in well-salted water until just tender. Use a long grain or parboiled rice, NOT a risotto rice — arborio releases starch and sets into a block as it cools.
2. DRAIN IT AND RINSE IT UNDER COLD RUNNING WATER until it runs clear, moving it with your hand. This is the opposite of what you do for every other rice dish on this site and it is the one thing that makes a rice salad work: the surface starch has to go or the grains weld together.
3. Spread it on a tray to drain and let it come to barely warm.
4. TOSS IT WITH THE OIL WHILE STILL SLIGHTLY WARM, before anything else goes in. The oil coats each grain and keeps them separate for the rest of the day.
5. Then fold in the giardiniera, tuna, cheese, olives and capers.
6. Chill 2 hours, and add the egg quarters only when serving — stirred in early they break up and go grey.
7. Check the salt when it is cold. Chilled food needs more than it seems to when warm.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes