SARTÙ DI RISO
Sartù di Riso is is a typical slowly cooked, hearty Neapolitan recipe handed down by TUNIA vigneronne Francesca’s grandmother. It is one of the typical dishes of the holidays. In essence, it is a crispy stuffed-rice dish; prepared Carnaroli rice is moulded and filled with peas, Buffalo Mozzarella, sausages, and a ragù made with fried meatballs and sausages, then baked in the oven. The exterior is crunchy and the melted mozzarella ragù mixture oozes out of the interior upon the first slice, each portion served topped with more ragù. The ultimate comfort food.
Ingredients
NB: Quantities are for 5 people
1) Fried Meat Balls (polpettine che poi vanno fritte)
- 200g in total, of ground pork and beef
- 80g day old bread, softened in milk
- 1 egg
- Salt and pepper
- 40g Grated Parmigiano cheese
- Olive Oil for frying the meat balls
2) Ragù
- 2 Wild pork sausage (TUNIA uses salsiccia di maiale grigio del Casentino)
- 1 liter of plain tomato sauce
- 1 Onion
- 125ml of Contrappunto Red Wine
- Salt and pepper – to season
3) Sartù
- 400g Carnaroli Rice
- Chicken stock – about 1 litre – to cook rice
- 2 More Wild pork sausages (TUNIA uses salsiccia di maiale grigio del Casentino)
- 200g Frozen Peas
- One Buffalo Mozzarella – no exceptions
- One Egg
- 40 g Grated Parmigiano cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 50g butter (to grease baking dish)
Instructions
Preheat the Oven to 180°C.
The Meat Balls
Start by making the meat balls. Mix ground pork and beef, grated Parmigiano cheese, bread, egg, salt and pepper to taste. Shape into balls. Fry in olive oil. Set aside. These will be added to the ragù sauce.
The Ragù!
With these meatballs, and some Casentino pork sausage (from wild pigs) prepare the ragù, the tomato meat sauce.
In a frying pan, fry a diced onion in olive oil, and add the red wine. Reduce slightly, and add in two of the wild pork sausages (removed from casings) until brown. Add in tomato sauce, and meat balls. Season with Salt and pepper. Set aside.
Building the Sartù
Cook the rice, like risotto, with the chicken stock.
While the rice is cooking, cook the frozen peas with the remaining two sausages, removed from their casings.
Cut up a whole mozzarella cheese, strictly Buffalo Mozzarella!!!
Once the rice is cooked, wait for it to cool. Add an egg, which is essential to give it firmness during cooking in the oven.
Line the dish on the bottom and sides first with butter, then sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Then line with rice. And finally – the stuffing! Put inside all the “stuffing”: mozzarella, peas, meatballs and sausage ragù – all mixed together. Reserve a portion of ragù aside to top the Sartù after cooking.
At this point add a final layer of rice to seal the top. Sprinkle breadcrumbs and some slices of butter.
Half an hour in the oven at 180°C and this is the result:
Top with another bit of meat sauce on top, which never hurts, and voilà, ready to be eaten accompanied by Countrappunto!
