Italian · Vercelli, Piedmont

Panissa Vercellese con Fagioli di Saluggia e Salame

The signature risotto of Vercelli — the heart of Italian rice country — made with Vialone Nano or Arborio rice grown in the Vercellese paddies, Saluggia beans (a local borlotti variety), Barbera wine, and cubed salame della duja (salame preserved in lard, with a distinctive soft, spreadable texture). Panissa is the opposite of the Milanese saffron risotto: rustic, earthy, bean-and-pork-driven, stained red-brown by the Barbera. It is considered the older, more honest rice tradition of the Po plain.

ServesFour portions

Sourced0of 9 in BC

Cook

The Market List

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For the beans (day before)

300 g

Saluggia beans (or borlotti)

soaked overnight, drained

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

fresh sage leaves

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

sprig rosemary

Your own market

For the risotto

320 g

Vialone Nano or Arborio rice

dry, unrinsed

Your own market

80 g

lard

not olive oil, not butter

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

onion

diced

Your own market

150 g

salame della duja

cut into small cubes; lard-preserved, soft-textured salame

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

125 ml

Barbera d'Asti

approximately half a glass

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

1 litre

bean cooking liquid combined with light meat or vegetable stock

kept hot; bean liquid adds starch and body

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

The Method

The day before: cover the drained Saluggia beans with cold water, add the sage and rosemary, and simmer until the beans are just tender but still intact. Remove from heat, season lightly with salt, and leave the beans in their liquid. Reserve both beans and all cooking liquid separately.

Melt the lard in a wide, heavy-based pan over a medium flame. Add the diced onion and the cubed salame della duja. Render and caramelise slowly until the onion is soft and golden and the salame fat has run into the pan, forming a rich, perfumed base. The fat should be visibly coloured and aromatic.

Add the dry rice directly to the pan. Toast in the salame fat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until each grain is coated and the rice smells faintly of toasted starch.

Pour in the Barbera. This is where the dish lives or dies: the wine must be absorbed completely before any stock is added — do not rush or dilute it. The risotto should turn a deep red-brown as the wine cooks in. When the pan is nearly dry and the wine smell has mellowed, proceed.

Add the hot bean-and-stock liquid one ladleful at a time, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding the next. Maintain a steady simmer throughout. Continue for approximately 15–16 minutes, or until the rice is almost but not fully cooked — it should still have a slight resistance at the centre.

In the final 5 minutes of cooking, fold in the reserved Saluggia beans gently. They must retain their shape; add a further ladle of hot liquid if the pan looks tight. The beans warm through and bind with the starch of the risotto without dissolving.

Remove from heat. The finished panissa must be all'onda: when the pan is shaken, the risotto waves across the base — looser than most risotti. Plate immediately; no further fat is beaten in.

III

Quality Hierarchy

Reserve — Certified Saluggia beans from a Vercellese producer; salame della duja from a single artisan norcino; Barbera d'Asti Superiore from a named estate; lard rendered from heritage-breed pork.

Estate — Saluggia or Lamon borlotti from a named grower; good salame della duja from a specialist deli; Barbera d'Asti DOC; quality commercial lard.

Market — Fresh borlotti from a farmers' market; soft, lard-preserved salame of any provenance; everyday Barbera; standard lard from a butcher.

House — Dried borlotti; firm salame approximating the texture (accept some loss of meltability); any dry Barbera or robust red; lard from a supermarket.

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. The Barbera has reduced to a deep red-brown glaze on the rice, with the pan nearly dry, before stock is added.

◇Touch. The beans, pressed between two fingers, give without collapsing — they hold their skin and form at the point of folding in.

◇Sight. The finished risotto waves (ondeggiare) when the pan is shaken — visibly fluid, not set or stiff.

◇Smell. The soffritto of lard, onion, and salame della duja smells deeply of rendered pork fat and caramelised allium before the rice enters the pan.

◇Where it lives or dies. The Barbera must be absorbed completely and alone — poured in first, cooked down to a deep red-brown reduction — before a drop of stock enters the pan; diluting it too early loses the colour, the acidity, and the fundamental character of the dish.

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What to Pour

Barbera d'Asti — the same wine used in cooking; its higher acidity lifts the bean-and-pork richness without overpowering the dish. A young Grignolino from the Vercellese or Monferrato offers a leaner, more mineral alternative.

The whole pairing

VII · Origin & Lineage

Panissa Vercellese is the rice tradition of Vercelli, at the centre of the Po plain paddies that supply Vialone Nano and Arborio to the world. It predates the better-known Milanese risotto and is considered by Vercellese cooks the older, more honest expression of northern Italian rice cookery — built on lard, local beans, and cured pork rather than butter, saffron, or refinement. Source: La Cucina Vercellese, Claudio Pedrini.

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