SARTU' DI RISO

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Serves 6

 

INGREDIENTS:

For the Rice:

1-pound Arborio rice  

Boiling water

2 teaspoon salt 

2 cups grated parmigiano 

3 large eggs, beaten 

For the Sauce:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 

12 oz sweet Italian sausage (about 3 links)

1 small onion, chopped 

1 clove garlic, chopped 

2 (28ounce) can crushed tomatoes 

1 cup water 

Salt to taste

4 fresh basil leaves

For the Meatballs:

2 slices day old Italian bread (crust removed)

¼ cup whole milk 

1 large egg, beaten

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder  

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup grated parmigiano  

1/2 pound ground beef  

olive oil for frying 

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To Assemble

( in addition to sliced sausage from sauce and mini-meatballs):

 

3 hard boiled eggs

2 cup frozen peas

2 oz diced pancetta

½ small onion, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 oz dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated (optional)

1 lb ball fresh mozzarella cheese, diced 

½ cup grated parmigiano

Pepper to taste

2 tablespoons butter (or lard), divided

4 tablespoons bread crumbs 

 

Start by preparing the ragu’. 

 

Place olive oil, chopped onion, garlic, and sausage in a saucepan. Cook on medium heat stirring often, until sausage is light brown and onion is soft.

Add the crushed tomatoes, the water and salt to taste. Stir and cover the pan. Simmer on low heat for about an hour, stirring often. Add basil at the end of cooking time.

 

While ragu’ is cooking, make the little meatballs.

 

Pour the milk over the day-old bread and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, place the ground beef, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste, the beaten egg and grated cheese in a bowl. Add the soaked bread and mix everything with a fork or by hand until combined.

 

With damp hands, shape mixture into little balls. Place enough olive oil to generously cover the bottom of a frying pan and heat over medium temperature. Carefully add the mini-meatballs and fry them on all sides. If all the meatballs don’t fit, do this process in batches.

Drain meatballs on paper towels and set aside.

 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and rice. Stir rice often to avoid clumps. Cook rice very aldente. Drain and place into a large bowl.

Add three cups of sauce to the rice and stir well. Allow to cool well before adding the grated parmesan cheese and beaten eggs.

 

Now on to preparing the peas…

 

In a frying pan, place diced pancetta, 2 tablespoons olive oil and ½ small chopped onion. Cook on medium heat until pancetta is golden brown and onion is soft.

Add frozen peas and cook about 5 minutes stirring often.

 

If using porcini, rehydrate them in a cup of hot water, letting them sit for about 15 minutes. When soft, chop them and add to peas mixture.

Add half of the peas mixture to the rice. Stir gently.

 

Remove sausages from sauce and slice them into ¼’ rounds.

Cut up boiled eggs into small chunks.

 

Generously grease a 12 cup Bundt pan with 1 tablespoon butter (or lard) making sure you cover entire surface. Dust evenly with breadcrumbs, leaving no bald spots.

 

Place half the rice mixture into the prepared pan. Press rice firmly to coat the bottom and about three inches up the sides and middle of pan. Use the back of a damp spoon to help make a trench in the rice. 

 

Place half of all the ingredients for the filling (sliced sausage, meatballs, mozzarella, hard boiled eggs, and peas) in the well you created in the rice.

Pack filling down evenly.

 

Cover with a few tablespoons of sauce, a third of the grated parmigiano and a little ground pepper to taste.

 

Spoon half of the remaining rice over filling and press evenly.

Repeat the process of placing the remaining filling ingredients over rice, packing down as before.

 

Add the sauce, grated parmigiano and pepper.

Top with all of the remaining rice, making sure it is packed down over all the ingredients.

Sprinkle the rest of the parmigiano over entire surface and dot with remaining tablespoon of butter/lard.

 

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until golden brown on top.

 

Remove from oven and let rest for about 15 minutes.

 

Place a plate or platter (a little bigger than the top of the pan) face down over the pan. With oven mitts to protect your hands, invert the pan so that sartu’ can rest onto the platter. Gently lift the pan off the sartu’, shaking gently if needed.

 

Slice sartu’ into 6 equal portions and serve with a little leftover sauce, if desired.

 

 

The Story of Sartu'
 

Although the rice had shown its presence in Italy in the eighth century already under Federico di Svevia, cultivated as it was in the plain of Lentini in Sicily, in the Neapolitan area they preferred macaroni, durum wheat pasta. When the dynasties of Angiò, Manfredi and Corradino succeeded in Frederick and the Aragonese against them, the kingdom was divided into two: on the one hand, Sicily and its arancine on the other the Anjou and the macaroni. In Naples, the Sicilian rice becomes a beloved medicine and, by discipline from the school of Salerno, a luxury product to eat white if sick: at court we come to consider rice as a “sciacquabudella” (gut-cleanser). Upon arrival of French ships laden with rice, the Neapolitan court does not know how to spread (and sell) this product. King Ferdinand, better known as King Lazzarone, marries Maria Carolina of Austria: she does not like Neapolitan cuisine, which she considers unworthy of the Court and contaminated by the Spanish (not to say Moorish); therefore she asks her sister Marie Antoinette of France to send her the most refined French cooks: the monsieur or, as the Neapolitans call them, the monsù. The latter decide to merge the two kitchens, giving life to one of the most exquisite, tasty and refined cooking schools in the world. It is at this moment that sartù is born, a sumptuous Neapolitan rice timbale. The name of this specialty probably derives from the expression of the French inheritance sor tout, translatable into cover-everything, such as a special coat or cloak: a camouflage.