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1
Place the speck lardons in a cold, wide heavy-bottomed pan. Set over medium heat and render without added fat until the fat has run and the lardons are lightly coloured but not crisp. Do not drain the fat — it is the soffritto base. The pan should smell of woodsmoke and the lardons should be golden at the edges.
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2
Add the diced celeriac to the rendered speck fat and stir to coat. Cook over medium heat for 3–4 minutes until the celeriac has softened slightly at its edges and taken on a little colour. Add the drained pearl barley and stir for 1–2 minutes until each grain is coated in fat and the pan smells faintly nutty.
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3
Add a first ladle of hot broth — it should hiss on contact. Stir to combine and adjust the heat so the grain simmers steadily. Add subsequent ladles one at a time, each only when the previous has been largely absorbed. Stir frequently but not constantly; barley releases starch differently from rice and does not require unbroken agitation. Continue in this way for 35–40 minutes total; taste at 30 minutes. This is where the dish lives or dies: broth added cold, stirring too aggressive, or barley added unsoaked will each produce a gluey, uneven result — the grain must remain distinct and gently swollen, yielding a little resistance at the bite, with a flowing but not soupy consistency around it.
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4
When the barley is cooked through with a nutty chew at the centre and the consistency flows slowly when the pan is tilted, remove from the heat. Add the cold butter cubes and the grated Montasio. Fold vigorously for 90 seconds — the mantecatura — until the butter is fully emulsified and the orzotto moves as one glossy mass.
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5
Stir in a few drops of apple cider vinegar. Taste and adjust salt. Serve immediately in warmed bowls — orzotto waits for no one; it tightens as it cools.