300 gr. Riso Carnaroli FERRON

6 decilitres fumet (fish broth)

150 gr. prawn tails

200 gr. zucchini

30 gr. chopped onion

30 gr. chopped carrot

½ chopped celery rib

1 garlic clove

1 laurel leaf

2 decilitres dry white wine

80 gr. extra virgin olive oil

chilli pepper

salt as needed

PREPARATION

Wash and peel the prawns.  Prepare a fumet (fish broth) by sautéing 20 gr. of extra virgin olive oil together with ½ the onion, the carrot, the celery and then adding the laurel leaf, the prawn shells, the ½ of the white wine and water.  Simmer for 30 minutes and then strain the stock.

In another pan sauté the 20 gr. of extra virgin olive oil with the remaining onion and add the thinly sliced (julienne) zucchini.  Cook a few minutes adding salt if necessary.   In a pot toast the rice with 20 gr. of extra virgin olive oil and then add 6 decilitres of the strained fish broth.  Stir gently, cover and cook over low heat for 13 minutes.  IN a pot with 20 gr. of extra virgin olive oil sauté the minced garlic until golden add the prawns, the chilli and the remaining wine and cook a few minutes.  After ¾ of the cooking time has elapsed, add the prawns and the zucchini and finish cooking.  Stir gently and serve.

300 gr. Riso Carnaroli FERRON

150 gr. prawn tails

100 gr. Gorgonzola cheese

2 small ripe melons

2 chopped shallots

50 gr. chopped carrot

1 chopped celery rib

1 garlic clove

1 laurel leaf

2 decilitres of dry white wine

1 decilitre vin santo (sweet wine)

1 decilitre extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION

Wash and peel the prawns.  Prepare a fumet (fish broth) by simmering for 30 minutes the prawns shells together with 1 shallot, the carrot, the celery, the laurel leaf, the dry white wine and some water.  In a pot toast the rice with the extra virgin olive oil and then add 6 decilitres of the strained fish broth.  Stir gently, cover and cook over low heat for 13 minutes.  Cut the melons in half, take the pulp out and marinate in the sweet wine.  In a saucepan sauté the minced shallot with the extra virgin olive oil and then add the melon cut in small pieces, add some salt and pepper and cook a few minutes.  In another saucepan put the clove of garlic with its skin on, the prawns, salt and pepper and sauté quickly over high heat.  After ¾ of the cooking time has elapsed, add the melon pieces, the prawns and the gorgonzola and finish cooking.  Serve the rice in the melon halves.

400 gr. Riso Vialone Nano FERRON

8 decilitres of vegetable broth

150 r. Smoked salmon

40 gr. extra virgin olive oil

1 rosemary sprig

30 gr. butter

salt & pepper as needed

PREPARATION

In a saucepan melt half the butter with the rosemary sprig. Add the cut up salmon, pepper and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Pour half the extra virgin olive oil in another pot together with the rice and toast a few minutes. Add the boiling broth, stir gently then cover and cook the rice over low heat for 13 minutes. Add the salmon which had been prepared previously and the remaining butter.  Stir gently and serve.

400 GR. Riso Vialone Nano FERRON

8 decilitres of vegetable broth

200 gr. raw pumpkin

1 garlic clove (diced)

30 gr. chopped onion

40 gr. extra virgin olive oil

30 gr. butter

40 gr. grated parmesan cheese

1 decilitre strong red wine a few basil leaves

salt & pepper as needed

PREPARATION

In a pan sauté the finely minced garlic and onion with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.  Add the pumpkin pieces, salt and the red wine.  Cook until the pumpkin is cooked but not mushy.  Puree a part of the cooked pumpkin.  In another pot sauté some extra virgin olive oil with ½ an onion, finely minced.  Add the rice and let toast for 2-3 minutes.  Pour the boiling broth (twice as much broth as rice) and the pumpkin puree, lower the heat and cover.  After 13 minutes remove from the fire and add the remaining pumpkin pieces.  Stir in the butter and parmesan cheese mixing gently.  If you wish, serve with thinly sliced fresh basil.

400 gr. Riso Vialone Nano FERRON

8 decilitres of vegetable broth

5o gr. basil leaves

40 gr. extra virgin olive oil

50 gr. grated parmesan cheese

3o0 gr. chopped onion

40 gr. butter

salt & pepper as needed

PREPARATION

In a pot sauté the onion with 20 gr. of extra virgin olive oil then add the rice and toast it a few minutes.  Add the boiling broth, cover the pan and let simmer at minimum heat for 13 minutes.

Once the rice is cooked add the thinly sliced basil leaves and the butter and parmesan cheese stirring gently.

400 gr. Riso Vialone Nano FERRON

8 decilitres of asparagus broth

700 gr. small green asparagus

40 gr. extra virgin olive oil

½ glass dry white wine

50 gr. grated parmesan cheese

1 garlic clove, onion, celery, carrot, butter, salt & pepper as needed

PREPARATION

Carefully wash and clean the asparagus, cut off the tender parts and make a vegetable broth with the tougher parts, the celery, onion and carrot and simmer for about 30 minutes.

In a saucepan sauté 20 gr. of olive oil with the minced garlic and onion  Add the cut up asparagus and cook a few minutes then add also the wine, salt and pepper to taste and cook for another 10 minutes.  Remove some asparagus tips to use as garnish.

In a pot toast the rice a few minutes with 20 gr. of extra virgin olive oil, add the broth stir gently, cover and let simmer for 13 minutes.  After ¾ of the cooking time has elapsed, add the asparagus and once the rice is cooked remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter and parmesan cheese.

Serve adding as garnish the asparagus tips which have been put aside for this purpose.

400 gr. Riso Vialone Nano – worked with pestles – FERRON

8 decilitres of vegetable and chicken broth

100 gr. pork loin

100 gr. lean veal

60 gr. grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

ground cinnamon

rosemary

1 deciliter cognac or white wine

salt & pepper as needed

PREPARATION

Melt the butter with the rosemary sprig on low fire.  When the butter is golden, eliminate the rosemary, add the 2 kinds of meat – chopped finely – and the cognac and raise the heat.  Let cook a few minutes add salt and pepper to taste, lower the flame and cook until the meat is done.  In another pot add the rice, some extra virgin olive oil and let the rice toast a few minutes at low heat.

Pour the boiling broth all at once, mix delicately, cover and let simmer at minimum heat.  After ¾ of the cooking time has elapsed, add the meat mixture, cover the pot and continue cooking until the broth has been completely absorbed.  Cover for a few minutes with a linen cloth so that the excess moisture can be absorbed and the rice grains result separate.  Remove the pot from the heat, add the Parmesan cheese and the cinnamon and stir gently.  Serve in single plates or place in a serving dish.

CHEF FERRON

MAKES RICE EASY

Italian chef Gabriele Ferron wants to save us all from the labour of risotto.  His is the fifth generation to head up the family company, Ferron, and so he seems to carry an unparalleled passion for the grain.

Chef Ferron travels to Toronto frequently to demonstrate the purity and ease of use of his products.  Ferron has created a career around rice, with a production company, two restaurants and an academy, which he hopes to extend to Toronto.  This month he’ll be doing demonstrations at the Wine and Cheese Show.

“Rice is filling, satisfying, but also so basic, so day-to-day,” he said at his last local appearance, a lunch a Grano based around his products.  Carnaroli rice is big and long and has a cerulean colour, while Vialone Nano is a semi-fine, medium-sized round grain.

Ferron preserves the tradition, using restructured versions of the original machinery that was built on his family’s land in 1650

The first course, a Risotto con Basilico and Parmiggiano Reggiano, started with toasting some Vialone in extra virgin olive oil, then adding the broth and covering for about 15 minutes.  That’s right; you just leave it there, bubbling, without stirring the rice even once!  The result was inspired.

Ferron preserves the traditional way of processing, using restructured versions of the original machinery that were built on is family’s land in 1650 and represent the oldest functioning whitening equipment in Italy.  His products extend into pasta, polenta and flour.

“I have spearheaded a sort of revolution in my country,” he says, which includes a deep involvement in the Slow Food movement.  And therein lies the dichotomy:  15-minute risotto, so you can spend more time living!

Ferron products are imported by F. Alonzi Wines and Spirits and can be purchased at Pusateri’s Fine Foods, Monastery Bakery & Delicatessen, Harvest Wagon and Totera Fine Foods or through our online store.

Risotto Up Close

Catch Gabriele Ferron at the Wine & Cheese Show from March 18 to 20.  Info at towineandcheese.com

How does a woman with a degree in forensic science and psychology find herself importing organic extra virgin olive oil from Crete?  For 31-year-old Kiki Tsourounakis, the answer is that oil and blood do mix.

For years her grandfather had cultivated olive trees in the mountain village of Vlatos in western Crete, but sold the oil off in bulk to another company.  When he passed away several years ago, his land was divided between Tsourounakis’s uncle and her father, who with her mother now splits the year between the nearby city Chania and Hawkesbury, Ontario.  It wasn’t until a few years ago, on a trip to Vlatos, that her interest in olives turned professional.

“My older brother and I were having the olive oil and we said, ‘This stuff is amazing and people here don’t appreciate what a high commodity it is in North America.’ So we decided to bring it over,” says Tsourounakis.  “I had a bit of a food background, I’m a huge foodie and I love business, so I thought, ‘Why not?’ I came back and researched how to import olive oil, and my friend’s a graphic designer, so we created a label, and 18 months later, the oil [now called Vlatos] was coming on the boat.”

The project is very much a family affair.  My uncle who runs the operation is also my contact for importing and exporting.  It’s my direct family that harvest it.  It stays in the family so we know it’s not tampered with,” she says.  The oil they proudly produce is made from the first press of organically grown Tsounati olives, found only in western Crete, giving the product a unique flavour that Tsourounakis describes as light and fruity with a buttery finish.  The olives are hand-picked, washed and machine-pressed within eight hours to prevent oxidation.  Everything is done at temperatures below 27 degrees Celsius to preserve nutrients.

Vlatos is available at more than 20 stores and restaurants in Toronto, and Tsourounakis is also beginning to import fleur de sel collected by a woman on the norther shores of Crete.  As for other plans, the entrepreneur’s ambitions are both simple and daunting.  “I see companies that start off with ideas that are wholesome, but then they kind of lose it.  I just want to keep providing 100-percent quality.”

WHERE TO GET IT

Vlatos oil comes in 250 mL ($14.99), 500mL ($28.90) and 750 mL ($39.95) sizes.

Retailers include: Alex Farm Products; Butcher By Nature; Calico Cafe & Catering; Cheese Boutique; Leslieville Cheese Market; The Mercantile; Organic Boutique; Scheffler’s Deli & Cheese; Sun Valley Fine Foods; Thin Blue Line; Noah’s Natural Foods.

For a full list of shops, visit www.vlatos.com.