Simple Italian Cookery | Page 6

onion, slice into small bits, and put into a
saucepan with two tablespoons of butter. Cook until onion is browned.
Wash well one-half cup of rice. Put it into the saucepan with the onion,

add salt and pepper, and fry until the rice is dry. Then take one and
one-half tablespoons of tomato paste, thinned with hot water (or two
tablespoons of other tomato sauce), and add to the rice. Little by little
add hot water until the rice is cooked through (about one cup of hot
water). Then add grated cheese, Parmesan or Gruyere, one and one-half
tablespoons of butter, and mix well over the fire, then serve.
This rice can be served alone or with fried sausages, or with cold
chicken, or any left-over meat prepared in the following manner:
Take one and one-half tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Cut the cold
meat into slices, and add them to the butter. Fry well, then take one and
one-half tablespoons of tomato paste, thinned in water (or three
tablespoons tomato sauce). Add to the meat a little at a time. Simmer
for one-half hour, then put into the middle of hot platter, surrounded by
rice, and pour this sauce over all. Add a handful of grated Parmesan
cheese to the rice.
This preparation of meat can be served with macaroni or corn-meal
instead of the rice.
RICE WITH BUTTER AND CHEESE (_Riso in Bianco_)
Take one-half cup of rice. Boil in salted water. After twenty minutes of
boiling take off the fire and drain. Then put the rice back into a
saucepan with three tablespoons of grated cheese (Parmesan) and three
tablespoons of butter. Mix well and serve as an entree, or around a plate
of meat..
RICE WITH TOMATOES
Boil a cup of rice soft in hot water. Shake it now and then, but do not
stir it. Drain it, add a little milk in which a beaten egg has been mixed,
one teaspoon of butter, and a little pepper and salt. Simmer for five
minutes, and if the rice has not absorbed all the milk, drain it again. Put
the rice around a dish, smooth it into a wall, wash it over with the yolk
of a beaten egg, and put it into the oven until firm. Take the strained
juice and pulp of seven or eight tomatoes, season with pepper, a little

salt and sugar, and one-half of a chopped-up onion; stew for twenty
minutes, then stir in one tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of
fine bread crumbs. Stew three or four minutes to thicken, and then pour
the tomatoes into the dish, in the middle of the rice, and serve.
RICE WITH TOMATOES "ALL' INDIANA"
Wash a cup of rice and boil it. Take seven or eight good-sized tomatoes,
boil and strain them, and season with salt and a little allspice. Take a
baking-dish and put into it alternate layers of tomato and rice, finishing
off with a layer of tomato, covered up with grated bread crumbs
moistened with melted butter. Bake in a moderate oven for a good
half-hour.
RISOTTO WITH HAM
Cut into small pieces one ounce of raw ham, fat and lean. Chop up fine
a small piece of onion, and put it with the ham into a frying-pan with
one-half a tablespoon of butter. Fry slowly until the ham and onions are
golden. Then add one-half cup of uncooked rice; when it has cooked
for a few minutes, add twice its height of bouillon (or water), salt and
pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and mix well and allow it to boil for twenty
minutes over a good fire. Then take off the stove, add two tablespoons
of butter and two tablespoons of Parmesan cheese grated; mix well and
serve.
RICE WITH MUSHROOMS
10 mushrooms if canned, or 5 or 6 if fresh ones 3/4 of a cup of rice
Chop up a little onion, parsley, celery, and carrot together, and put
them on the fire with two tablespoons of good olive-oil. When this
sauce is colored, add two tablespoons of tomato paste, thinned with hot
water (or a corresponding quantity of tomato sauce). Season with salt
and pepper. Cut the mushrooms into small pieces, and add them to the
sauce. Cook for twenty minutes over a medium fire. Put on one side
and prepare the rice as follows:

Fry the rice with a lump of butter until dry; then add hot water, a little
at a time, and boil gently. When the rice is half cooked (after about ten
minutes) add the mushrooms and sauce, and cook for another ten
minutes. Add grated Parmesan cheese before serving.
POLENTA (_Indian Meal_)
3/4 of a cup of yellow Indian meal (fine) 3 cups of water
Put the water into a granite or iron saucepan,