Primi

Generally speaking, Italian cuisine is best known for its universally popular primi piatti (first courses) such as rice dishes, pastas and soups. The golden rule for a well-balanced meal is to alternate light and heavy courses, hot and cold, to take advantage of the full range of content, taste and texture. The visual side is also important, but secondary. In Italy we say anche I’occhio vuole la sua parte, ‘the eye too wants to participate’.

From Northern to Southern Italy, there are hundreds of primi, all mouth-wateringly different according to the availability of local ingredients, habits, history and culture. For example, all over the Po Valley, water comes from the mountains to irrigate the rice fields of Vercelli and Novara in Piemonte, Pavia in Lombardy, and Padova in Veneto. Not surprisingly, the speciality of Milan, the rice capital of Italy, is risotto with saffron; in Vercelli it is a risotto with borlotti beans called panissa; in Novara, risotto is made with frogs; in Bergamo and other valleys, it is eaten with wild mushrooms; and in Venice with fish. In Alba, the rice receives the most precious of all toppings - white truffle. All these specialities are different, all extremely tasty and all use the best local ingredients.