Risotto al vino, with only 5 ingredients

Risotto al vino, thanks to Blasting News for this image

So, you've come back home at night only to find out that you have no food in the house, except for a bottle of good red wine, some rice and a small onion in the cupboard and a chunk of butter and a piece of parmesan or mature cheese in the fridge. No need to worry, as this is all you need for:

Risotto al Vino Rosso - Serves 6
500 g of 'Arborio' or 'Carnaroli' rice, 50g of butter, 1 cup of grated grana or parmigiano or mature cheese, a small onion, glass of red wine.

Finely chop the onion and gently fry it in butter. Add rice and let it fry with all other ingredients for a minute or two, always stirring. Pour in a good glass of red wine and let it reduce. Pour enough boiling water (or boiling chicken stock) to cover rice. Add a little salt. Stir rice from time to time. Add more boiling liquid if necessary. Check salt and add more if necessary. When rice is 'aldente' (cooked but firm) add grana cheese and stir vigourously. Serve immediately - Mangiare subito!

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GM food-free Italy

Good news for those passionate about good food, and bad news for those big corporations that are trying to convince us that genetically modified food is good for us. Italy is GM food-free and will be in the future. At a conference yesterday, a vast majority of Italian parliamentarians and senators with different political views all agreed on this crucial issue. Giuseppe Politi, president the Confederation of Italian Farmers, said: "Agriculture does not need GM crops. We need to defend our bio-diversity and high quality food and produce instead" (Source: 'La Repubblica' newspaper).

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Early vintage

As I take a walk around our village Toffia, there is a distinctive smell coming from the palazzo's basements: it's the smell of must.
Generally, vintage time is frantic. Little 3 wheel 'Ape' open vans zip around the country at frightening speed with their precious load of grapes. Everyone is working over the same weekend, and watching all this happening at the nearby Monastery of Farfa is spectacular. The monastery has a small and very ancient vineyard. If you have seen Jamie Oliver's 'Great Escape', you would have see the Farfa monastery featured in episode #3. Vintage has been a little early this year, due the warm winter and long, sunny summer. It will be interesting to taste the result of it in a glass. Some of the new wine is due out in November and sold as 'vino novello'. I know this is not for the purists, but a glass of it won't hurt anyone!

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com