During the fourteenth century, under the rule of the Aragonese dinasty, the Neapolitans were the first in Italy to learn about rice. The Spaniards had brought this light and versatile food that the Neapolitans ate as a single dish. While in Napoli they were preparing “timballi”, “sartu’ ” and “pall’ ‘e riso” (rice ball or arancini), in Northern Italy it was used for medications or as an ingredient for sweets. All this was happening at the same time that pasta was gaining its momentum. Therefore you will understand that the Neapolitan people preferred pasta and rice became very used in Northern Italy.
In Napoli, rice cooked as risotto (risotto is a cooking method) is also widely used with seafood but the flavor is very far from an overseas Seafood Rice.
Neapolitan cuisine lies not only in the quality of the products and in its recipes, it lies in the timing, in the care and in the poetry of the whole preparation. Cooking is indeed for Neapolitans a sacred ritual.
The greatest enemy of Neapolitan cuisine is haste.
So after buying fresh products, directly from the sea, take your time to prepare all the ingredients and follow the recipe step by step, paying attention to every detail, and starting to taste this amazing dish recipe from the very beginning.
Ingredients:
Use fresh seafood only.
400 g rice for risotto
500 g mussels
500 g clams
250 g squid
250 g cuttlefish
250 g octopus
250 g shrimp
3 cloves of garlic
White wine
Extra virgin olive oil
Parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
A couple of cherry tomatoes (optional).
Preparation:
1. Wash and cure the mussels and clams. Clean the cuttlefish, the squid and the octopus.
(You can open mussels and clams over high heat in a covered pot without water, and then set them aside. Otherwise you will let them open when you add them into the sauté).
2. Cook the squid , the octopus and the cuttlefish and, once they are cooked, set them aside (you will cut them when they will be cooled) and save the cooking water.
3. Make a soup with the empty heads and tails of the shrimps and a little water. Filter the cooking liquid and set it aside.
4. In a pan, sauté oil, garlic and a parsley stalk. Leave to flavor for a few moments.
4. Once the garlic is golden, remove the parsley stalk, add the rice, and if you like, add 2 cherry tomatoes.
5. Add white wine and let it evaporate while continuing to mix.
6. Cook the rice by gradually adding the cooking liquids from the shrimp and the octopus that you have saved earlier.
7. Cut the cuttlefish, squid and baby octopus into small pieces.
8. Halfway through cooking add mussels, clams, cuttlefish, shrimp, squid and octopus.
9. Complete the cooking by adding the cooking liquids you saved earlier.
10. When the rice is cooked take it off from the heat and let it rest for a minute.
11. Cut fresh parsly leaves and sprinkle on risotto.
Enjoy!
