Paniscia from Buronzo
This is a peasant winter dish made with ingredients dried or preserved for the long winter
months. The salami traditionally used was most probably ‘d’la duja’, which is a salami from
Piedmont that is preserved for the bitter winter months in barrels of lard. The salami was wiped
clean of the lard before using, but the lard was kept for frying and was quite flavoursome.
Paniscia is rather more liquid than a risotto. Serves 4
Ingredients:
100 g piece of gammon, chopped
200 g borlotti beans, fresh or dried and soaked
2 celery sticks, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 leek, chopped
150 g Savoy cabbage, chopped
a few ripe tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
60 g pancetta or smoked bacon, chopped
60 g butter
1⁄2 cooking salami, skinned and broken into pieces
1 glass red wine
350 g risotto rice (Sant’ Andrea, carnaroli or baldo)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
grated Parmesan cheese to serve
Place the Gammon and the borlotti in a large saucepan, cover with water, and boil for 1 hour.
Add the celery, carrot, leek and cabbage, together with the tomatoes and salt and pepper. Boil
for a further hour.
In a pan (traditionally a terracotta pan), gently fry the onion and pancetta in the butter. Add
the salami and the red wine and fry until slightly evaporated. Add the rice and cook as for a
risotto, adding the broth from the beans a little at a time. Add the vegetables and the gammon
cut into chunks and cook for approximately 20–25 minutes. Serve in a bowl, sprinkled with Parmesan.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster
