Do you know, among European countries, which is the largest rice producer ? Yes...... It is really Italy ! For this reason ( but also because it is our country ), in this recipes section, italian rice cooking is presented.

MILANESE RISOTTO

400 gr. Vialone Nano rice, 50 gr. Ox marrow, 1 onion, 20 saffron pistils, oil, salt, vegetable soup cube, sufficient parmesan cheese

Keep soup on cooking on a high flame, slice onion and grate parmesan cheese. To prepare risotto, brown 100 gr. butter, with onion and marrow.
Before onion is browned, take it away from flame then, pour rice and leave it toasting for, about, 5 minutes.
Pour, few at a time, hot soup, on rice.
Cook rice on a high flame and keep on, stirring and pouring soup, little by little.
Ater 15 minutes, add saffron, the rest of butter and cheese.
Serve risotto, if possible, with some more cheese.

400 gr. very tough rice, 50 gr. cooked ham slice, 50 gr. peas, 100 gr. tuna in oil, 50 gr. 'fontina' cheese slice, 1 celery rib, 1 hot dog, 1 egg, 10 stoned black olives, sufficient extra vergine olive oil.

Boil rice in salty water then, strain it slightly underdone and make them cold.
In the meanwhile, boil peas and eggs then, strain them and make them cold.
Strain tuna. Wash celery and slice it in small cubes; slice ham, 'fontina' cheese and hot dog in small cubes too. Slice eggs.
Put rice into a bowl, add strained tuna, ham, cheese, hot dog, peas, olives and celery. Dress with a little oil and blend the whole.
Put rice on a serving plate and garnish it with small slices of hard-boiled egg. You must serve it cold, dressed with oil and mayonnaise.

250 gr. rice for sweets ( round grains ), 4 apples, 200 gr. sugar, a piece of vanilla stick, ½ lt milk, 3 eggs, ½ yeast packet.

Cook rice in very little water, just sufficient to cover it.
Once water is soaked, add vanilla stick and 50 gr. sugar.
Pour milk, little by little, until rice is completely decomposed.
It must be a dry mixture, not liquid. Let it get cold, stir in the meanwhile, every now and then, in order to avoid crust formation.
In the meanwhile, peel apples, slice them in small pieces and put it in a water and lemon mixture, in order to avoid their blackening. Then beat them, until a cremy mixture is formed.
Add the rest of sugar to rice and, one by one, eggs yolks, keeping eggwhite apart. As soon as eggs are well mixed, add apples mash.
Beat eggs white till stiff, with a pinch of salt and add them to the mixture.
Stir well and add half yeast packet.
Grease a pudding mould with butter and pour rice and apple mixture on.
Cook them in the oven, in bain-marie, at 150° degrees, for about one hour.
Make them very cold, then turn pudding upside, on the serving plate, dust them with some vanilla icing sugar and serve it with a sweet apple sauce.

180 gr. Originario rice, 60 cl. milk, 200 gr. butter, 250 gr. dried biscuits, 200 gr. sugar, 100 gr. lean cocoa, 2 spoons of sweet bitters, 2 eggs.

Cook rice in the milk, until it is completely soaked..
Melt butter on a low flame, crumble biscuits and put them in a bowl with melted butter, sugar, cocoa, bitters and eggs.
Stir the whole with a spoon and add cooked rice.
Pour mixture on an aluminium film and roll it, shaping it as salami.
Put it in the fridge, after two hours, it will be ready to be served.

PAELLA

1 kg. whole chicken, 350 gr. loin of pork, 150 gr. sausage, 1 big onion, 3 garlic clove, ½ carrot, ½ celery stem, 3 spoons of oil, 150 gr. heart of the artichoke, 200 gr. yellow and red peppers, sliced in small stripes, 100 gr. medium peas, 400 gr. long grain rice, 2 saffron packets, 150 gr. pulped tomatoes, 20 mussels, 100 gr. prawns, 6 big crawfishes, 200 gr. small cuttlefishes and squids, soup, chily, parsley and some green olives.

Wash and dry chicken, put rosemary, sage and a garlic clove inside chicken.
Grease it with oil and dust it, with salt and pepper.
Let it cook for 25 minutes.
Once cooking is finished, wrap it with tinfoil and leave it to stand.
Put mussels in a big bowl, cover it and cook it on a low flame, for 5 minutes, until they are open.
Small cuttlefishes and squids must cook for 10 minutes in a covered bowl, with oil, salt, parsley and a spoon of water.
Big crawfishes must cook, with salt and oil, in a shallow and covered bowl, for 15 minutes.
Slice peppers in small stripes, season them with oil, salt, pepper and garlic and let them season for 15 minutes.
Then cook them, while stirring, every now and then.
Cook the hearts of artichokes with two spoons of water, for 14 minutes; strain them and put them apart.
Finely mince onion, garlic, carrotts and celery. Put them in a large bowl, together with 3 spoons of oil and cook them, keeping them covered.
Add pieces of sausage and pork loin small cubes; cook, while stirring, every now and then.
Add rice, tomato, saffron and the hot soup, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
In the meanwhile, bone a chicken and slice it in small pieces.
Put fishes, chicken, cooked vegetables and some olives in the rice bowl, cover and leave the whole to season for 5 minutes.
Leave it to stand for 10 minutes, then serve.