Peas & rice
( Risi e bisi )

Peas and rice according to the Italian tradition is a typical dish of Veneto. In Italy we call it "risi e bisi".
The ingredients are: rice, fresh peas in the pods, carrot, onions, celery, aromatic herbs, butter, Parmesan cheese and good-quality extra virgin olive oil. We explain the authentic recipe of risi & bisi (rice and peas) on our blog.
On the contrary this page is dedicated to our version without butter and Parmesan cheese to control fat. Besides we substitute rice with a combination of rice, emmer and barley to control sugars and carbohydrates. So it's a vegan recipe with peas.
Here's our recipe!

Prepare the peas. Trim both the ends of every pod. Remove the strings from both the sides of every pod. Pop the peas out. Put apart the peas and wash the pods.

Prepare the vegetable stock. Peel one onion and cut it into 3 or 4 pieces.
Peel the carrot and cut into 2 or 3 pieces.
Clean the celery stalk and remove its string, wash and cut into 2 or 3 pieces.
Put the pods, onion, celery and carrot in a large pan. Cover with cold water, season to taste with salt, bring to the boil, lower the heat and keep on cooking for about an hour. Don't let the water reduce too much. Add other hot water if necessary.

Strain the stock. Strain the stock and put apart. Reduce to puree all the strained vegetables: put them through a food mill.

Prepare the rice and peas. Chop the second onion and fry lightly in the olive oil on low heat.
Add the peas and let them flavor for some minutes stirring often. Then add the rice too!
Stir and cover with the hot stock. Keep on cooking on low heat adding other stock when necessary. Be careful: your rice and peas must be neither thick as a risotto nor watery as a soup. Look at the photo for more details.
In the last minutes of cooking taste for the salt, add the aromatic herbs and the vegetables put through the food mill.
Stir accurately.

Serve at once.

Note

• - You can't prepare in advance this dish. Make and eat at once. On the contrary it becomes too thick.
• - Think well of this recipe. You don't waste anything.
• - You can make this dish in winter too. You need frozen peas (about 500 g - 1.1 lb). Boil 150 g (5 1/3 oz) peas together with the carrot, onion and celery for about 30 minutes and then put them through a food mill. Cook the remaining peas with the rice following the instructions above and complete the recipe.

What's the right wine for " Peas & rice "?

If you like red wine serve Valpolicella (Veneto - Italy). On the contrary serve Friuli Isonzo Malvasia or a good-quality white wine of Italy.