I have two containers of this 'new' rice farmed in Piedmonte. Haven't used it yet, but I'm excited to try it. Here's the pitch from the seller (with lots of hype, as is his wont). Perhaps some of you have sourced this from elsewhere?
Dear Friends,
Our Reperso Risotto rice caused a pantry stampede last year!
Really?
Really.
We had two batches last year and both sold out so quickly (from home cooks as well as professional chefs) that it was impossible to keep the rice in stock.
(as a reminder of why Reperso rice is such a big deal, please see the original offer below in italics)
As noted the last time, if you are into all things risotto or simply love cooking with the finest raw materials in the world, Reperso rice is a revelation/revolution of small-farm artistry!
Let’s Eat!
This parcel has just arrived with the finest/freshest original provenance available – directly from the farm. It is not a pre-arrival (home cooks take note!). Local pick-up after our winter inventory (we should be finished in a week or so).
ONE SHIPMENT ONLY for 2022 – very hard to find in the US.
FIRST COME FIRST SERVED up to 24/person until we run out:
Reperso Risotto Rice 500g (Piedmont) - $16.98
(BIO/organic; the original!; the cool packaging makes for a great gift as well!)
Thank you –
- Jon Rimmerman
**********************************
(for reference, here’s the original offer from 2020)
Saturday: A New Era for Risotto!
Dear Friends,
Last night, I began cooking what was supposed to be a simple little meal of rice but it turned into an elaborate experimental feast that featured one of the more revolutionary culinary ingredients I’ve sampled of late and one that has a chance to change how the top chefs of the world approach what has become nearly as popular around the globe as pasta:
Risotto.
Most of you know my penchant for risotto and its myriad of incarnations and I’ve longed to sample last night’s ingredient for the past year when I first heard about it in Limone Piemonte. I was finally able to cook several different versions of Risotto with this ingredient as a base and the results left me just a tad speechless.
What ingredient?
A new type of risotto rice.
What?
Really?
What about arborio and carnaroli?
Yes, yes but read on...
One of the more beautiful but frustrating aspects to making risotto (for the restaurant chef as well as home cook) is the immediate nature of cooking with carnaroli and/or arborio rice – the risotto must be consumed quickly or the “al dente” tone of the rice kernel quickly tunes to a starchy consistency with a half-life of appeal that becomes more and more fleeting as time goes by.
That does not occur with todays’ subject.
The new rice is called Reperso and it’s the holy grail (and panacea) of restaurant risotto chefs – it has incredible depth of flavor and gives off a noble cream as you stir but it remains al dente throughout the cooking process and up to an hour after cooking (no joke). It is of such high quality and game-changing appeal that the “inventor” (a farmer in Piedmont) has had to guard the hybrid “recipe” for the rice crop like the original Coca-Cola formula (hey, rice is a VERY big deal in Italy).
Considered a completely new type of rice grain and a new “grand cru” of risotto rice, Reperso performs to such a high level that even the current “king” of risotto rice (carnaroli) seems wimpish by comparison. Reperso’s grain is larger, more intense in flavor, super-pure and tough to break down.
Reperso’s tag line is “Royalty, Modernity and Tradition” and it’s an apt summation of exactly what the taster encounters when cooking with this rice – it’s the finest risotto rice in the world, that I am sure of!
One of the risottos I cooked last night with Reperso featured fresh artichokes and it was so sublime, I wanted to offer the Reperso rice today to highlight this simple but delicious rice dish (recipe: trim the baby artichokes - peel the outer tough leaves, cut and halve them - sear in extra virgin olive oil, cippolini onions, a TINY amount of chopped garlic with the green stem removed (do not use a garlic press), a splash of Gavi di Gavi white wine and fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley. After searing the baby artichokes (they will oxidize quickly if not coated in olive oil in the pan), add just enough water to cover the bottom of the risotto pan and bring the heat up slightly and cover – effectively “steaming” the artichokes and parsley mixture for 2-3 minutes. Set aside in a ceramic bowl. Wipe the pan of excess water and brown the Reperso rice with extra virgin olive oil on relatively high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add additional cippolini chopped length-wise to give a nice cross section of the entire tiny onion, cook for 5 minutes, and start adding high quality chicken or vegetable broth to the mixture. After 5-7 minutes, add a touch of additional Gavi di Gavi or similar dry white wine and continue adding small amounts of broth for a total of 20 minutes, cooking on medium/high heat for the entire 20 minutes. Reperso is so forgiving you can actually cook up to 25-27 minutes and it is still al dente. Remove from heat, add several chunks of Reggiano Parmesan and mix throughout (do not cook the cheese – make sure to remove the pan from heat – this is a big mistake folks make with risotto). You can also add a small spoon of high-quality unsalted butter if you wish and stir in. I almost wrote, “plate immediately” but I forgot for a moment that this is Reperso – you do not need to plate immediately!
(I can feel the collective “What?” by chefs around the globe who are part of the Email List community – “plate immediately” and “risotto” are synonymous, correct? If there’s a rice we can somewhat prepare in advance it will open up an entire world of possibilities in the kitchen? Can this be true? Yup.)
Instead of artichokes, the Reperso is also fabulous as a risotto rice with fresh mushrooms, porcini, Hen of the Woods, etc or with squash blossoms and pumpkin, tiny shavings of cured/toasted bresaola or oven-crisped prosciutto and mountain herbs – the recipe possibilities are endless!
Reperso, the new KING of risotto rice that you will start to see featured at the world’s top eateries (as a major point of difference) - our parcel is also directly from the source in Piedmont – it is not via a middle-man or multiple tiers of distribution...