Rice and peas recipe

Risi e bisi.

Or throw a little elision in your

Pronunciation and it's "reezee beezee" — adorable name for a great rice and beans dish from venice.

Peas are beans, so it's Venetian rice and beans. My version does some things according to tradition, but I've got a few tricks of my own. First I'll grab a white onion. Red would stain the dish a bit. I'll dice this as finely as I reasonably can, then I'll put about half of it into a pot without about two quarts of water in it, two liters, ish. I'ma bring that to a boil, throw in a couple big pinches of salt and let it go for a bit. Risi e bisi is traditionally made with fresh sweet spring peas — bisi.

Fresh peas are very hard to find where I live. They're only sweet for a brief window of time, but I saw these at my grocery and I figured hey, let's give them a chance. They look ok. You can use frozen peas, if necessary. But one reason to use fresh is you traditionally make a quick green stock out of the pea pods. My peas didn't come with their pods so instead I'm throwing in a few big handfuls of spinach. Traditionally they might boil the pods in light chicken stock. I'm keeping it veggie today, hence the onion I've got going in there to compensate.

I'll just bring that spinach to a boil real quick, it'll cook almost instantly. I'll turn the heat off and then puree this up. I can't get the same flavor you'd get from pea pods but at least I can get some crazy intense green color. Got that reasonably smooth, and then I'm gonna strain out the fibers. Sorry about the steam treatment there. Press on the solids, squeeze out all you can, and done. Taste that — it's a pretty tasty quick vegetable stock. Ok, big pan on the heat, a little oil or butter.

The traditional recipes usual call for some diced pancetta at this stage — I'm skipping the meat today. In goes the other half of the onion. Gentle heat. We don't want to brown anything — just give the onion a little head start. When I see it softening, I'll dump in two cups, maybe 450g of any short grain rice suitable for risotto, even though this is not quite a risotto. Lots of risi e bisi recipes tell you to put in the peas first and some stock and then put in the rice. I think that's because in Venice they'd generally use vialone nano rice, which cooks pretty quickly, so they need to give the raw peas a head start. I can only get arborio rice where I am, it cooks slower, so rice first.

Unlike risotto, most traditional risi e bisi recipes do not call for white wine, but hey, it's vinho verde, so I'm keeping with the whole green theme. Enough to just cover and I'll let that absorb. Now's a good time for the fresh peas.

I've got 12 ounces, 340g.

And then I'll get everything covered with my green stock, stir and simmer. Over here I've got a big handful of parsley that I'll spike with a little fresh mint. Chop very fine. This is not traditional, but I'm making a little pesto-condiment thingy for garnish.

The mint will make it as vernal and fresh as my daily multivitamin from Ritual, the sponsor of this video. One thing I hate about vitamins is how gross they can taste, especially if they have Omega-3 oil in them. They can taste fishy. Ritual is vegan, so they get their Omega-3 from algae, not fish. The capsule tastes super fresh and I get no weird aftertaste or upset stomach. These are delayed release capsules made to dissolve in less sensitive areas of the gut. I appreciate Ritual's transparency — they tell you where all the ingredients come from and why they include certain micronutrients and not others. I'm not a nursing mom, so I probably don't need to supplement vitamin C — it's not in the Essential for Men that I take.

I appreciate how the mailers are made from recycled newsprint and plant fibers. The bottles use 100% recycled materials. Ritual also has new synbiotics and protein supplements. Everything is vegan, allergen-free, gluten-free, all that. Fill in gaps you may have in your diet. Ritual is offering 20% off your first month with my link and code in the description: Ritual.com/Adam20, use code ADAM20 at check out to save 20%. Thank you, Ritual. Looks like we've soaked up our first dose of green stock.

I'll pour in enough to just cover and repeat the whole process. You really don't have to add the stock little by little and stir constantly, but I tend to be conservative with the stock toward the end simply because I don't know how much liquid this rice is actually gonna absorb and I don't want to flood it. I bet you though it looked like way too many peas at first, but it all evens out as the rice expands. We're making at least four dinner-size portions here. I figure half a cup, 50 or 60g of rice per person. I've got my herbs for garnish pretty fine now. You could do this in a food processor but I didn't want to get mine out. Now I'm gonna sprinkle on some coarse salt to help me grind this down a little with the side of my knife.

You could do this in a mortar and pestle but I don't want to get mine out. The cutting board is already dirty. Grinding really helps grow out the green color, which is what I want. I'll gather that up and throw it into a little cup or something and then mix in enough olive oil to get me a thick sauce. Again, this is not traditional — it's just a garnish that tastes good and it assures that my plates will have fresh green color even if my peas end up coming out kinda army green at the end. They are not particularly fresh. Alright, my rice has been in 15 minutes, it's looking close to done. This is the point where you'd want to stir in frozen peas if you're using frozen.

Frozen peas have already been cooked. They'll thaw almost instantly in the heat of the rice. I'll grab a few grains and taste them. They feel just a little crunchy, which means it's time to stop. The whole point of risotto technique is to get creamy rice that has a slight tooth to it. It'll soften a lot more by the time you actually eat, so stop cooking before it's done. Traditionally we'd finish this with some butter and cheese — yeah, I'ma use that whole piece. There's a lot of portions here.

Then I'll grate on a big pile of cheese, parmesan. As always, I think the best non-dairy option here is some vegan sour cream — that does the job of both the butter and the cheese. Now, risi e bisi is not risotto. It's supposed be somewhere between a risotto and a soup, so I need more liquid, but I'm out of stock. I always like a little fresh wine at the end. And you could totally just put in some water at the end too. Just taste for seasoning and see if it needs more salt. White pepper would be a traditional spice here.

I've seen people use nutmeg. And honestly, if you use frozen peas, yours will be a lot brighter green than mine. To compensate, I'm gonna drizzle on some of my herb oil and just swirl it in a little. It's delicious, and it's instant, guaranteed green. Fresh, not frozen peas have their downsides. It's really hard to get them really fresh, but one thing they have over frozen peas is a much smoother interior texture. Fresh peas kinda pop in your mouth like caviar and the inside is just velvety. Everything here is velvety, and the flavor is outstanding.

Very strong, very vegetal — I'm not missing the pancetta at all, though maybe I'll make it with pancetta some time. For now, I'm happy to just have rice and peas. Unbeatable combination...