Riso con le Chnolle | Hidden Gem of Italian Cuisine

Welcome back! Today we're checking out another hidden gem of Italian cuisine. This is where Eva picks a region of Italy and cooks a dish from that region that very few outsiders know about or isn't very famous, but that she thinks deserves a little bit more attention. For this episode, this time, we go up to the north of Italy, and I say north, I mean very very north of Italy, and we are going into the region of Valle d'Aosta, which is one of the smallest regions in Italy. And the one that I probably know the least about. Normally I like to sort of like think of all the things I know about that region, but I don't know if I know a single thing about that region. For sure you'd know if I asked you what's the tallest mountain in Europe. Oh, Mont Blanc? Perfect, Monte Bianco is in Valle d'Aosta. Then I can keep asking you what is the second tallest mountain in Europe. I don't know. But the third tallest mountain. They're all there. They're all there, they are all in Mont Blanc. A lot of tall mountains, got it? It looks like a fairy tale. It's like those wonderful mountains, all these amazing houses made with wood, with a roof like that. All over the region you see amazing castles. When I was a child, I remember that my mom and my dad took us to see the tallest mountain in Europe. Did you also see the second tallest? Yes, and also the third one. Because once you are there, you go. And I still remember all those castles, driving through the streets of Valle d'Aosta, you have a castle there, a castle there, a castle there. It's like, it's amazing. It's very beautiful. It's a place where, I don't know, you can drink during winter. During winter, a lot of people go there to ski. Wait, I'm sorry, you can drink in winter? No, you can drink like the hot wine in winter. Okay. No, actually, yes. You can drink in winter because it keeps you warm. Is it one of those places? Just snowbound? It keeps you warm drinking in winter. Words of wisdom, Lloyd. Words of wisdom. In Valle d'Aosta, they have a ton of cows, which means that they produce a lot of milk. They produce from the milk a lot of amazing cheese and the butter is unbelievably good. I'm guessing they don't have a lot of olive trees growing in the snow up there. Not really. I'm trying to think if I even know any dishes from Valle d'Aosta. Yes, you should remember because we made already one. Which one? Oh, I forgot where those were from. Those are, that is an amazing dish. Okay. Okay, if that's where they make that, I want to see what else they make. So let's say that the food from Valle d'Aosta, because it's very cold up there, is not the lighter food in Italy. It's good heavy mountain food. Cheesy, full of fat. One of the main dish of all north of Italy is polenta. So today we are going to make a polenta, but in this case, Valle d'Aosta style. But before you get cooking, a quick word about today's video sponsor. Probably doesn't shock anyone, but she is a cereal recipe collector. 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We're big fans, we think you will be too. Download the app, check it out today by clicking the link down in the description below. A big thank you to Résumé for sponsoring this video. And for organizing my recipe. We are starting this dish with making some polenta. The only thing that you need to pay attention this time, and actually not just attention, you need to substitute, is instead of using water, this time we're going to use some milk. Milk polenta? Milk polenta. So with every polenta, we start with boiling, in this case, the milk. So not like every polenta. Things like, in this case, you boil the milk. You boil the liquid, the water normally. Yes, and the other time you boil the water. We need to add some salt. When the milk starts to boil is the moment in which we can pour in our polenta flour. And we do a little bit of the time using a whisk, like you do with normal polenta. And now what you need to do is standing here for at least 25 minutes, half an hour, on a very low heat and keep stirring it because the polenta can stick to the pot. When you use normal polenta flour, you know that it takes long to cook. Instead, when you use instant polenta, usually the cooking time is about, I don't know, 10 minutes, something like that. So according to what is written on your package, according to your choice of polenta flour, cook it. If your arms get too tired, you can always have your husband taking it over and do the hard job for you. That's what I'm here for. Now the polenta is done. So what we need to do is turn off the heat and wait just 30 seconds to let it a little bit cool down because then we need to add parmigiano-reggiano and two eggs. Now what we need to do is let it completely cool down for about 30 minutes, 40 minutes. In the meantime, we need to take care of another ingredient, which is rice. Rice and polenta? Si. Rice and polenta. Together? Together. I'm using Carnaroli rice, which is the best rice when you make the risotto. But in this case, I'm not cooking it as a risotto, but I'm cooking it as pasta, which means I will boil it in boiling water, boiling salty water, like I would do for the pasta. And just like pasta, we want to cook the rice until it is al dente. And because every rice is different, check the cooking time that you find on the package. This should take about 15 minutes. I should also probably mention that I'm assuming you do need an Italian rice, like Carnaroli or Arborio. This is not going to work with jasmine rice. Yes, obviously. You say obviously, but... I know, but it's an Italian dish. It's like I'm making a Thai dish, I'm going to use Carnaroli. I know that it can't work. Or I'm going to make sushi and I use an Arborio rice. It can't work. But because we are talking here about an Italian dish, yes, the rice should be an Italian rice. While the rice is cooking, it's time to cut the cheese. Why are you laughing? Nothing. Tell us more about how you're going to cut the cheese. I cut the cheese with a knife, Harper. How do you cut the cheese? The cheese that we are going to use is the traditional cheese, one of the traditional cheese from Valle d'Aosta. For sure, it's the most famous, it's the most common cheese from that region. And the name is Fontina. In America, I saw the Fontina pretty available everywhere. Now, I don't know if it was a very good Fontina, but I seem so because, by the way, how a Fontina imported from Italy can be bad. But in case you don't find the Fontina, you can substitute it with an aged, semi-aged Asiago. And if you don't find also the Asiago, I hope that my friends from Valle d'Aosta, they don't kill me, you can use a very good cheddar. The other important ingredients that we need is butter. And we need this melted on a very low heat or in the microwave. Melt a good chunk of butter. So the rice is done and we can drain it. And what we need to do now until it's still hot, we need another little bit of butter. We pour the cheese in and we start mixing. So both of these elements seem amazing. I mean, you've got cheesy rice and cheesy polenta, but I'm a little confused how they're going to go together. And now you will see because we need to combine the two together. The first thing is pour some extra butter into a baking tray. Yes, I know it's a lot of butter, but it's a northern Italian dish where it's very cold. They have a lot of cows, a lot of butter, and they use what they have. With your hands dirty. Buttery. Buttery, because we need some fat. We need to take a little bit of polenta and make some... Polenta meatballs? Or polenta gnocchi. Polenta gnocchi. It depends how you want to call them. I think I'm even more confused now. The polenta is ready. What we need to do now is cover those with the rice. What? OK. Wet your hands a little bit so the rice doesn't stick to your hands. And we need to cover, spreading the rice on top. And last but not least, we need to pour the melted butter on top of the rice. And now we bake it. It's baked. Oh, OK. We bake it for about 10 minutes, 15 minutes, until on top there is a golden crust. So now we just cut into it and eat it? No, we cut it and eat it. OK. Eva, this has to be one of the strangest dishes you've ever cooked for me. It really is, even though it's funny because the ingredients are so simple. It's like polenta, rice, cheese, butter, milk, like nothing could be more ordinary, the ingredients. But the technique and the form of the dish is so bizarre. It's like, what can I say? This is one of those traditional dishes that actually is very hard to find in a restaurant up to Valle d'Aosta. So you need to have, you need to go in a family where they still keep doing things like that. I can see why, because if you saw this on a menu, you would be like, what, like cheesy polenta balls baked but covered in rice? It's odd. See, but the fact is that actually the rice on top create the crust, but the polenta on the bottom is a sort of fluffy stuffing. So it makes sense. It smells amazing. And okay, I tasted both the polenta before she made the balls and the rice, and both tasted phenomenally good. So putting them together, put more butter and make them how they can be. I'm hopeful, I'm hopeful. But I do just need to point out that if you tell someone about this dish, it sounds really weird. Before we dig into this, what is it called? This is called riso con la quenelle. Come again? Riso, which is rice, con la quenelle. La quenelle are those polenta balls. All right, let's give it a shot. The smell is amazing. Smells good. Ooh, yeah, there's that crust on top. Oh. Si, because... That feels good. Sometimes you can just tell when you just start to push it forward. Because on top it's crunchy, but at the bottom it's very soft. Tell me that is not amazing. That is so good. Tell me that there is something wrong that doesn't work. Everything works. That is so delicious. I know that it can be strange if you think polenta, but the polenta is just too... Then there are the eggs, I don't know how to explain. What seems really odd about this isn't the cheesy polenta, it isn't the cheesy rice. Those things are pretty normal. It's a combination of the two, but you're right. A very magical thing happens with the textures here, because the rice does kind of crisp up. It has a really satisfying, just ever so slight sort of crunch on top. But then the polenta... And because you added eggs into the polenta, it stays really soft even though it holds together. Si, because the eggs make the polenta softer. I also noticed something with the polenta before even trying the finished dish, because I tasted a little bit of it as Ava was cooking. And it kind of blew my mind because you didn't add very much cheese into it, but somehow it must have been the combination of using milk and also adding the eggs, which sort of enhanced the flavor. It tasted like pure cheese. The polenta tasted like almost like a cheesy paste. Like it was unbelievable. It was good. I liked the knell, how they're called. They are good also by themselves. So you can make them and just put in a pan with sage butter, sage butter, because we are in Val d'Aosta, with a cheese fondue. They will taste amazing. This is so unusual in such an amazing way that I would encourage you to just do it. I know it like seems weird, but the results speak for themselves. Definitely hidden, and I can understand why, because again, this isn't a dish that sells itself well. I already know that it's going to be really difficult to make like a thumbnail for this, you know, because like it looks like nothing and it seems weird, but try it. It is definitely a gem. That is for sure. Good job, Val d'Aosta. Speaking of hidden gems that sound really bizarre and like they wouldn't work, but are amazing. Cynthia made this very interesting dessert from a video we made a while back on zucchini recipes. What you're looking at there is called, what's it called? Maria Stuarda. And it is a sweet zucchini filled tart. It's a very, very old recipe from Sicily that even nowadays it's a little bit too tricky to find because this idea was lost, I don't know why, I don't know when, but believe us, it's something amazing. And Cynthia did a cool thing that I'm into, so we shared sort of the traditional shape, which is they're small little round tarts, but she made a big one. I support this philosophy. Go big or go home. Well done, Cynthia. Thanks for trying the recipe. If you know of any hidden gems of Italian cuisine, drop a comment down below. Maybe we'll make it next time. If you enjoyed the video, please give it a thumbs up and hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. We'll see you next time. Ciao! Rice and polenta? Nothing is impossible!