[Sca-cooks] Risotto was Since it is Pennsic I have a totally off-topic is Risotto

[Johnna Holloway]

Here's another take on the history (since I am sure that Stefan needs  
more for a file):

http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/29/id/32/

http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/recipes/display/bycountry.php/recipe_id/727/id/3/pg1/6/
As early as the sixteenth century, the Renaissance chef Cristoforo da  
Messisburgo had claimed in his Libro novo [nel qual s’insegna a far  
d’ogni sorte di vivande secondo la diversità de I tempi così di carne  
come di pesce] that he thought risotto con lo zaffrano (which he  
called riso all Ciciliana) was born in Sicily

Note:  These notes are for readers interested in pursuing this history  
further:

Messisburgo [also Christofaro di Messisbugo] was published in Venice  
in 1557 (see p. 72 of the Arnaldo Forni edition in Testi Antichi de  
Gastronomia no. 2 published in 1982).

My claim is not new, see Denti di Pirajno, Alberto. Siciliani a  
tavola: itinerario gastronomico da messina a porto empedocle. Milano:  
Longanesi, 1970, page 134,
and Maffioli, Giuseppe. La cucina veneziana. Padua: Franco Muzzio,  
1982, page 222.

Also see, for the growing of saffron and rice in Arab Sicily, the  
extracts of Yaqut’s (b. 1178) Mu’gham al-buldan and al-Qazwini’s (c.  
1203-83) Atar al-bilad (Notable things in countries and news about  
men) in Amari, Michele, ed. Biblioteca arabo-sicula. versione  
italiana. Torino: Ermanno Loescher, 1880-81, vol. (1) page 201 and  
vol. (2) page 238, par. 140 as well as al-Muqqadasi’s description of  
Sicilian saffron cited in Lewis, Archibald R. Naval Power and Trade in  
the Mediterranean, A.D. 500-1100. Princeton: Princeton University  
Press, 1951, page 211 and Wright, Clifford A. Cucina Paradiso: The  
Heavenly Food of Sicily. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, page 111.

How to cook:

http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/tips.php/id/12/

Johnnae

On Aug 8, 2011, at 4:38 PM, Susanne Mayer wrote:
> and here the story and history of the risotto, here they state that   
> the frist recipes with rice roasted in butter and then slow cooked  
> in broth is documentable in 1779
>
> http://www.risottomilanese.it
>
> and  I have to second  Johnnae: is is indescribable  (pumpkin season  
> starts,...)
>
> greetings
> Katharina