A food of ancient Po Valley origin, rice is experiencing rediscovery among the young and the not-so-young. The choice restaurant to taste its richness is in Milan, in Piazza Carbonari, in "Trattoria Casa Fontana 23 Risotti", which has been offering almost exclusively rice-based dishes for more than twenty years.
A warm and snug environment, no more than 40 places for lovers of cosy atmospheres, though not excessively glamour or intimate.
From starters to dessert, the kitchen offers a wide choice of rice and risottos combined with season ingredients: more demanding in the winter, lighter in the summer. Imaginative or traditional recipes, to satisfy curious palates as well as conservative ones: risotto with apples and spinach, rosemary, chick peas and shrimps, green with pistachios, but also risotto with sausage, beans and saffron, or smoked with Trevisana, or with chicory and stockfish.
With vegetables, meat, wildfowl or cheeses, tasty, hot or delicate, every dish is offered with the most appropriate wine, chosen from a selective wine list, but selected with care.
For each preparation the most suitable quality of rice is used, in order to find the ideal union between the type of kernel and the condiment: for starters they use Baldo, for soups Padano or S.Andrea, for risotti Roma, Vialone, S.Andrea or Arborio, for timbales Carnaroli, for desserts Originario.
Every year, during the last week of October, the collection time for new rice, the Rice Festival takes place: they are a number of gastronomic evenings dedicated to rice, the king element among five tasty dishes.
The restaurant has a single flaw: hungrier people will suffer a little during the 25 minutes required for cooking and “mantecatura”. However, they will generously be paid back for the painful wait. An old recipe for risotto alla milanese in prose says:
"Famel on poo saggià. Bon, bon, va là,
sent che udurin ? El fa resüscità".
(Let me taste it a little. Hmm, very nice, go on.
Can you smell it? It makes you resuscitate)
Casa Fontana 23 risotti (In Italian)
Rice