Pea and Pancetta Pasta.
A pasta interpretation of the traditional risi e bisi hailing from the Veneto region of Italy, this is a thoroughly satisfying spring dish of peas.
Risi coi bisi.
Halfway between a risotto and soup, just as the risi e bisi, which is made of rice, it is a delectable preparation with fresh peas, fully employing of their youthful, ambrosial spleandor.
A celebratory springtime recipe from the days of the Republic of Venice, risi e bisi was traditionally offered to the Doge of Venice at his Ducal Palace on the 25th April in honour of San Marco, the patron saint of Venice, using the first crop of spring peas harvested around this time. Though some sources place its origins back to the Byzantine Empire, the bearer of much of Venice’s historical culinary riches and commercial fortunes.
Dainty and palatial, the peas are accompanied by pancetta, subtly enveloping their sweetness. Lightly cooked in vegetable stock and finished with Parmesan, the results are a toothsome combination of sweet and savoury goodness, mouth-watering in taste as well as appearance, so pleasing to the eye the symmetry, balance and neatness of all its ingredients, perfectly proportional in size, colour and nutrition.
Just as with the rice version, this pasta dish is finished with a small amount of butter – a somewhat unspoken secret of some pasta dishes, unlike the much-discussed drizzle of olive oil that accompanies most. (The holy trinity of Italian cooking: extra-virgin olive oil, salt flakes and Parmesan, there is very little in life that cannot be elevated or outright rescued with those three. I have watched the grandest Italian chefs never send out a dish for stretches of time without a final drizzle and sprinkle of these – used raw, or crudo, they add a further, final layer of flavour, beyond that already incorporated during cooking.)
Adding butter at the end as a final seasoning is a similar principal, balancing and binding the flavours and harmonizing texture, and especially useful and delicious if the dish is on the astringent side, as sometimes happens when cooking with alcohol.
MENU SUGGESTIONS.
Dense, flavoursome and soupy, this is an indescribably attractive springtime dish, and made with good quality produce perfectly passable for grown-up and even important occasions. You can be fully secure in the knowledge that any private pleasure or faint amusement you might derive in serving a dinner of pasta coi bisi to your spouses’ serious superior at work will be perfectly innocuous, concealed by the pea’s perfectly round profiles, so handsome, silky and scented, boldly bathing in “coagulated sunlight” (- butter, as defined by the poet Seamus Heaney -) and of course, the dish’s illustrious ancestry ( ‘why George, the dish of the Doge! …of the finest Eastern Mediterranean origins.’) and no one will mildly suspect your resourceful, self-dependent diversions from domestic monotony and creative - if vague - bids for conjugal bliss. It does of course also make a superb nursery dish. And for the most delicious effect should be served with a spoon, at any age and circumstance.
Similar to other first course dishes that benefit from a good sweet-savoury balance, this is a solid standalone star, mostly as it’s so moreish, and so a shame to limit yourself to a small portion. (I have never seen anyone not to have seconds.) That said, below are some suggestions, for mannerly moments -
Savoury -
Grilled asparagus with lemon butter, a spring vegetable frittata, stuffed or baked artichokes, tomato and basil flan or tartare, scallop gratin with thyme, hake or cod with salsa verde or tomatoes and olives, swordfish involtini, tuna polpette, lemon roast chicken with mayonnaise, celeriac and chicken salad, tomato, avocado, asparagus and basil salad, artichoke and courgette strudel, baked ricotta with lemon, creamed salt cod, stuffed grilled squid, quail egg flan with roasted spring onions
Sweet -
Baked peaches with amaretti, lemon and almond cake, ricotta cake with blackberries, a lemon posset, orange and rhubarb bavarese, crème caramel, apricot and almond tart, elderflower and gooseberry jelly, lemon, ricotta and pistachio cake, battered and deep-fried apples, poached apricot pavlova
RECIPE.
Serves 4
Peas, shelled, 400g
Short, dented pasta (pasta corta rigata), 350g
Pancetta, 60g
Spring onion, 1
Butter, a knob
Parmesan, a generous sprinkle
Vegetable stock, a couple of ladles
Parsley - olive oil - salt and pepper
For the most delicious results, use the shells from the peas to make your vegetable stock. This recipe can also be made with water to substitute the stock. The pasta shape – as it always is – is important. It should be similar in size to the peas, ideally slightly larger, and it does need to be “dented” to provide a contrast in texture to the smooth peas.
1. Chop the pancetta into cubes and slice the spring onion
2. Heat olive oil in a pan and cook the onion and pancetta on a moderate heat until transluscent
3. Season with salt and pepper, add the peas and a ladle or two of stock (or water) and cook for further 10-15 minutes
4. Meanwhile cook your pasta until al dente in a separate pan
5. When ready, add the pasta to the peas, mixing thoroughly and finish by stirring in a knob of butter. Check and balance seasoning.
6. Serve topped with freshly ground Parmesan and chopped parsley.
